Mttllflffi 


' 1 


PRIZE  ESSAY 


GO  OR  SEND: 


For  M issions. 


BY  ATTICUS  G.  EAYGOOD,  D.D., 


BOARD  OF  MISSIONS  OF  THE  METHODIST  EPISCOPAL 
CHURCH,  SOUTH. 


NASHVILLE,  TENN;  • 

SOUTHERN  METHODIST  PUBLISHING  HOUSE. 

1874. 


EntoiiS  CopiEi  BY  Mail,  SOc.  ; Per  Dozen,  $3.  Uscal  Discount  to  Fbeacuebs. 


A PLEA 


OF  THE  NORTH  GEORGIA  CONFERENCE. 


Published  by  Order  op  the 


BOARD  OF  MISSIONS 


OF  THE 


dhodisl  piscopl  Church, 


OFFICERS: 

Rev.  T.  O.  SUMMERS,  D.D.,  President. 

Rev.  N.  H.  LEE,  D.D.,  First  Vice-President. 

Rev.  W.  G.  E.  CUNNYNGHAM,  U.D.  , Second  Vice-Pres. 
Rev.  John  B.  McFERRlN,  D.D.,  Secretary. 

Rev.  a.  H.  REDFORD,  D.D.,  Treasurer. 


MANAGERS. 


Rev.  a.  G.  Haygood,  D.D. 
Rey.  W.  P.  Harrison,  D.D. 
Rev.  R.  a.  Young,  D.D. 
Mortimer  Hamilton,  Esq. 
Rev.  a.  P.  McFerrin. 


Rev.  D.  C.  Kelley,  D.D. 
W.  T.  Gates,  Esq. 

Rev.  W.  M.  Rush,  D.D. 
Rev.  J.  Hamilton,  D.D. 
Rev.  R.  Alexander,  D.D. 


T.  J.  Magruder,  Esq. 


Ex  officio  Members  of  the  Board : 

Bishops  Paine,  Pierce,  Kavanaugh,  VVightman,  Marvin, 
Doggett,  McTyeire,  Keener. 


•mi  mas 

frsc 

p-H.  12- 


Go  OR 


SeND: 


Flea  for  Missions. 


By  Atticus  G.  Haygood,  D.D., 

OF  THE  NORTH  GEORGIA  CONFERENCE. 


Go  ye  in/o  all  the  world,  and  preach  the  gospel  to 
every  creature. — CHRIST. 

Who  goeth  a warfare  any  time  at  his  o-wn 
charges? — PAUL. 


EDITED  BY  THOS.  O.  SUMMERS,  D.D. 


Published  by  order  of  the  Board  of  Missions  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South. 


NASHVILLE,  TENN.: 

SOUTHERN  METHODIST  PUBLISHING  HOUSE. 

1874. 


Entered,  nceording  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1874,  Ijy 
A.  H.  REDFORD,  Agent, 

in  the  office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  at  Wasliington. 


Dedication 


TO  MY  HONORED  BEETHREN, 

THE  REV.  JAS.  W.  LAMBUTH  AND  THE  REV. 
YOUNG  J.  ALLEN, 


OCS  TWO  UIS8IOKABIES  AMONG  THE  HEATHEN, 

IVAo  '‘have  borne,  and  have  had  patience,  and  for  His  name's 
sake  have  labored,  and  have  not  fainted f 

This  Plea  for  Missions 

IS  DEDICATED  BY 


The  Author. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  I. 

The  First  Question 9 

CHAPTER  II. 

The  Gospel  is  Adapted  to  All  Men,  and  Nec- 
essary TO  All  Men 14 

CHAPTER  III. 

The  Duty  of  the  Church 20 

CHAPTER  IV. 

Do  Missions  Pay? 28 

CHAPTER  V. 

Christ  Jesus  “ Head  over  all  things  to  the 

Church  ” 56 

CHAPTER  VI. 

Conclusion 62 

(5) 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2016 


https://archive.org/details/goorsendpleaformOOhayg 


INTRODUCTORY  NOTE. 


HE  Board  of  Missions  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South, 


-L  at  its  meeting  in  Nashville,  May  lo,  1873,  resolved  to  offer  a 
premium  of  one  hundred  dollars  for  the  best  Essay  setting  forth  the 
principles,  facts,  and  obligations  of  the  Church  in  regard  to  Missions. 
The  Essay  was  to  contain  not  more  than  forty-eight  duodecimo  pages. 

Bishops  Keener  and  McTyiere,  and  Thos.  O.  Summers,  were  ap- 
pointed a Committee  of  Adjudication;  and  the  President,  Secretary, 
and  Treasurer  of  the  Board,  a Committee  to  supervise  the  publication 
and  circulation  of  the  Essay.  The  manuscripts  were  to  be  forwarded 
to  the  President  by  October  i,  1873. 

At  a subsequent  meeting  of  the  Board,  for  reasons  assigned  by  the 
Committee  of  Adjudication,  they  were  substituted  by  R.  A.  Young, 
D.D.,  R.  K.  Hargrove,  D.D.,  and  the  Rev.  J.  M.  Sharpe;  the  time, 
also,  was  e.\tended  from  October  l,  1873,  to  January  l,  1874. 

This  action  of  the  Board  was  reported  in  the  Church  papers,  and 
ten  manuscripts  were  forwarded  to  the  President,  and  by  him  handed 
over  to  the  Committee  of  Adjudication,  January  i,  1874. 

At  a meeting  of  the  Board,  February  20,  1874,  their  Report  w.as  sub- 
mitted by  the  Chairman,  who  stated  that  the  members  of  the  Com- 
mittee, before  consultation,  separate  and  apart,  had  reached  the  con- 
clusion stated  in  their  Report,  which  was  unanimously  adopted  by  the 
Board,  and  the  Committee  received  a vote  of  thanks  for  their  careful 
attention  to  the  delicate  duty  imposed  upon  them.  The  Report  is  as 
follows : 


(7) 


8 


INTRODUCTORY  NOTE. 


“ The  Board  of  Missions  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South, 
at  its  annual  meeting  in  May,  1873,  offered  a prize  of  one  hundred 
dollars  for  the  best  Essay  on  Missions.  On  New-year’s  day,  1874,  the 
Committee  received  ten  manuscripts.  We  have  read  them  carefully, 
and  have  agreed  to  award  the  prize  to  the  author  of  the  Essay  contain- 
ing eighty-three  pages,  and  marked  X.  Y.  Z.  On  opening  the  sealed 
envelopes,  we  find  that  he  is  our  friend  and  brother,  the  Rev.  Atticus 
G.  liaygood,  D.D.  There  are  other  four  or  five  manuscripts  of  great 
merit,  which  we  hope  the  Board  will  publish — thus  making  a hand- 
some volume  on  the  subject  of  Missions. 

“ Respectfully  submitted : “ Roet.  A.  Young, 

“ R.  K.  Hargrove, 

“J.  M.  Sharpe, 

“Nashville,  Feb.  20,  1874.  Committee." 

It  will  be  seen  that  the  Essay  covers  more  than  the  number  of  pages 
specified,  as  it  was  thought  advisable  by  the  Committee  of  Publication 
to  print  it  in  rather  large  and  open  type. 

The  Essay  is  sent  forth  with  many  prayers  that  it  may  accomplish 
the  thing  whereunto  it  is  sent.  Thos.  O.  Summers, 

J.  B.  McFerrin, 

A.  H.  Bedford. 

Publishing  House  of  the  M.  E.  Church,  South, 

Nashville,  Tenn.,  Feb.  26,  1874. 


GO  OR  SEND: 

A PLEA  FOR  MISSIONS. 


HE  first  question  is  this : Did  Jesus  Christ  intend  his 


gospel  for  all  men  ? Suppose  the  great  commission 
read  thus:  “Go  ye  into  all  the  world,  and  preach  the  gos- 
pel to  every  creature — except  to  the  people  in  China.”  In 
that  case  the  Church  would  give  itself  no  concern  about 
the  Chinese.  And  it  ought  not,  if  Christ  never  included 
them  in  his  gospel  plans. 

The  Pharisees  settled  down  complacently  in  the  saying : 
“ No  Jew  goes  to  hell.”  They  supposed  that  all  others  did, 
and  seem  to  have  had  pleasure  in  the  thought.  With  such 
views  they  did  not  organize  missionary  societies — concern- 
ing themselves  chiefly  in  preserving  the  respectabilities  of 
the  Church,  and  in  protecting  themselves  against  the  uncir- 
cumcised. 

But  if  Jesus  did  intend  his  gospel  for  all  men  ? 

Who  was  Jesus — speaking  now  of  his  humanity?  What 
did  he  call  himself?  “The  Son  of  man.”  He  was  a Jew 
after  the  flesh,  being  a son  of  a daughter  of  Abraham,  and 
“of  the  seed  of  David.”  But  he  calls  himself  “the  Son 


CHAPTER  I. 


The  First  Question. 


10 


GO  OR  send: 


of  man,”  as  representing  not  the  Jews  only,  but  the  entire 
race  of  Adam.  “The  Word  became  flesh;”  it  says  not, 
became  a Jew.  In  that  case  Gentiles  could  feel  no  interest 
in  him,  except  as  a teacher,  wiser  than  all  the  ancients. 
But  in  “the  Son  of  man  ” — “God  manifest  in  the  flesh” — • 
the  Jew  has  no  more  interest  than  the  Roman. 

How  does  Jesus  himself  explain  his  coming  into  this 
world?  In  the  dreams  of  mythology  the  gods  are  repre- 
sented as  coming  among  men  to  perform  prodigies — to  rid 
the  world  of  wild  beasts,  of  plagues,  of  tyrants,  or  to  take 
sides  with  their  friends  in  war.  Hence  every  nation,  and 
almost  every  city,  had  its  god  or  gods,  expecting  at  their 
hands,  at  best,  only  deliverance  from  danger,  or  some  sort 
of  worldly  blessing.  There  is  nothing  of  this  in  what  Jesus 
says  of  his  mission.  He  says:  “The  Son  of  man  is  come 
to  seek  and  to  save  that  which  is  lost.”  There  is  no  mis- 
taking his  meaning.  Being  lost  is  being  in  sin — “without 
God  and  without  hope  in  the  world.”  Seeking  that  he 
may  save  the  lost,  he  seeks  that  he  may  save  all  men.  It 
amounts  to  this;  If  any  race  can  be  found  that  has  not 
fallen  in  Adam,  that  does  not  “lie  in  sin,”  and  that  is  not 
“ under  the  curse,”  and  that  is  not  “ lost,”  Jesus  Christ  did 
not  come  into  the  world  for  that  race.  It  does  not  need 
him. 

The  fact  of  sin  proves  an  interest  in  the  blood  of  Christ. 
If  we  receive  the  Bible  doctrines  of  sin  and  redemption, 
two  things  are  clear: 

1.  Our  race  would  have  died  with  the  first  sinners  but  for 
the  salvation  provided  in  Christ  Jesus.  So  that  to  live  at 
all  is  proof  of  an  interest  in  the  atonement.  Men  are  born 
as  well  as  saved  by  grace.  The  first  blessing  is  absolute; 
the  second,  conditional. 

2.  That  whatever  led  the  Son  of  God  to  be  the  Saviour 
of  one  man,  leads  him  to  be  the  Saviour  of  all  men. 


A PLEA  FOR  MISSIONS. 


11 


Considering  who  Christ  Jesus  is,  it  is  incredible  that  he 
should  have  left  any  man  out  of  his  great  designs — that  by 
any  strange  mischance  a human  soul  could  come  into  this 
world  with  no  interest  in  his  redeeming  love.  If  we  could 
find  a man  like  ourselves  in  all  respects,  except  that  Jesus 
Christ  left  him  out  of  the  plan  of  salvation,  we  should  find 
a moral  monstrosity  that  would  appall  the  intelligent  uni- 
verse. It  would  be  a mystery  greater  than  the  origin  of 
evil;  it  would  bring  a shadow  over  the  face  of  the  sun;  it 
would  discredit  the  government  of  God. 

Suppose  that  an  angel  should  come  down  from  heaven 
and  proclaim:  “God  so  loved  the  world,  that  he  gave  his 
only  begotten  Son,  that  whosoever  believeth  in  him  should 
not  perish,  but  have  everlasting  life — except  the  people  in 
China."  All  who  know  Christ  would  brand  him  with  mor- 
tal heresy.  We  could  give  him  but  one  answer:  “Though 
we,  or  an  angel  from  heaven,  preach  any  other  gospel  unto 
you  than  that  which  we  have  preached  unto  you,  let  him 
be  accursed. ”d! 

What  does  the  Book  say? 

It  says:  “God  so  loved  the  world,  that  he  gave  his  only 
begotten  Son,  that  whosoever  believeth  in  him  should  not 
perish,  but  have  everlasting  life.”^  If  it  said  no  more  on 
this  subject,  it  would  be  enough;  but  this  is  only  the  be- 
ginning. Let  us  read  again,  and  with  a believing  heart: 
“And  the  bread  that  I will  give  is  my  flesh,  which  I will 
give  for  the  life  of  the  world.’ V “ For  the  love  of  Christ 
constraineth  us;  because  we  thus  judge  th^t  if  one  died  for 
all,  then  were  all  dead.”</  “That  He,  by  the  grace  of 
God,  should  taste  death  for  every  man.’’<?  “And  He  is 
the  propitiation  for  our  sins;  and  not  for  ours  only,  but 
also  for  the  sins  of  the  whole  world. “Who  is  the  Sav- 

cGal.  i.  8.  ^Johniii.  i6.  ^Johnvi.  51.  c/aCor.  vi.  4.  ^Heb.  ii.9. 
fi  John  ii.  2. 


]2 


GO  OR  send: 


•our  of  all  men,  especially  of  those  that  believe. ”a  “God 
was  in  Christ,  reconciling  the  world  unto  himself.”(5  “Who 
gave  himself  a ransom  for  all,  to  be  testified  in  due  time.’V 
Because  Jesus  Christ  intends  his  gospel  for  all  men,  he 
invites  all  men : “ Come  unto  me  all  ye  that  labor  and  are 
heavy  laden. ’V  Therefore  he  commands  all  men  to  re- 
pent: “Except  ye  repent,  ye  shall  all  likewise  perish.”*' 
Therefore  he  declares  the  ground  and  measure  of  man’s 
condemnation  to  be  in  the  rejection  of  him:  “This  is  the 
condemnation,  that  light  is  come  into  the  world,  and  men 
loved  darkness  rather  than  light. ’y  Therefore  those  who 
reject  him  are  condemned  to  perish:  “He  that  believeth 
not  is  condemned  already,  because  he  hath  not  believed  in 
the  name  of  the  only  begotten  Son  of  God.”^  Therefore 
the  final  “perdition  of  ungodly  men”  is  ascribed  to  their 
obstinate  impenitence  and  unbelief:  “O  Jerusalem,  Jeru- 
salem, thou  that  killest  the  prophets,  and  stonest  them  which 
are  sent  unto  thee,  how  often  would  I have  gathered  thy 
children  together,  even  as  a hen  gathereth  her  chickens 
under  her  wings,  and  ye  would  not!”A  And  in  this  uni- 
versal provision  for  the  salvation  of  every  human  soul  is  the 
tremendous  force  of  our  Lord’s  upbraiding  accusation: 
“And  ye  will  not  come  to  me,  that  ye  might  have  life.”/ 
We  cannot  mistake  the  designs  of  Jesus  if  we  understand 
his  character  and  his  words.  He  proposes  the  salvation  of 
the  entire  race  of  man.  “Behold,”  said  the  Baptist, 
“ the  Lamb  of  God,  which  taketh  away  the  sin  of  the  world !” 
The  plan  of  the  gospel  is  ample — sufificient  to  save  every 
man  that  ever  was,  or  ever  will  be,  born.  No  man  ever 
was,  ever  will  be,  ever  can  be  lost,  by  being  left  out  of  that 
plan,  or  by  any  defect  in  its  operations.  Men  have  been 

ai  Tim.  iv.  lo.  62  Cor.  v.  19.  ci  Tim.  ii.  6.  </Matt.  xi.  28. 
^Luke  xiii.  3.  /John  iii.  19.  ^John  iii.  18.  /;  Matt,  xxiii.  37. 

/John  V.  40. 


A PLEA  FOR  MISSIONS. 


la 

lost,  and  will  be  lost,  by  rejecting  Christ;  not  otherwise. 
For  Jesus  proposes  nothing  less  than  the  moral  recreation 
of  the  whole  world — the  conquest  of  the  love  of  every 
apostate  heart — the  restoration  of  the  entire  race  to  the 
unity  of  an  all-embracing  spiritual  kingdom,  of  which  he 
himself  is  the  immortal  Head. 

The  first  question  is:  “Did  Jesus  Christ  intend  his  gos- 
pel for  all  men?”  The  answer  is:  Jesus  Christ  “is  not 
willing  that  any  should  perish;”  he  “tasted  death  for 
every  man;”  he  offers  salvation  to  every  man;  he  seeks, 
by  all  right  means,  to  save  every  man;  he  is  “able  to  save 
unto  the  uttermost  all  that  come  unto  God  by  him.”^r 


<2  Because  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  has  made  full  atonement  for  the 
sins  of  the  whole  world,  Bishop  Marvin’s  great  conclusions  are  true : 
“ I.  Our  Creator  has  provided  a second  Adam,  whose  representative 
relation  to  us  places  us  on  a footing  as  advantageous  as  if  we  had  never 
been  involved  in  the  fall.  2.  The  gracious  influences  of  the  Cross  so 
far  countervail  our  depraved  propensities  as  to  make  repentance  and 
salvation  possible  to  every  man.  3.  I cannot  suppose  that  the  human 
family  would  have  been  permitted  to  multiply  under  the  fatal  influences 
of  the  fall  but  for  the  counteracting  agencies  of  the  redemption.” — 
IVork  of  Christ. 


14 


GO  OR  send: 


CHAPTER  II. 

The  Gospel  is  Adapted  to  All  Men,  and  Necessary 
TO  All  Men. 

I ■'HE  gospel  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  is  adapted  to  all. 
i How  different  from  any  other  system  of  law  or 
morals  proposed  to  the  world  ! Consider  the  simple  code 
of  Solon : the  best  he  could  devise,  but  so  imperfectly 
suited  to  the  wants  of  his  people.  How  impossible  to  ad- 
just Solon’s  code  to  the  condition  of  other  nations  in  dif- 
ferent ages  and  among  different  races  of  men  ! But  the 
gospel  is  perfectly  adapted  to  all  men  of  all  races  in  all 
times  and  in  all  circumstances.  As  the  light  is  adapted  to 
all  eyes,  so  is  the  gospel  adapted  to  all  souls. 

The  human  race  is  one.  “God  hath  made  of  one  blood 
all  nations  of  men  for  to  dwell  on  all  the  face  of  the 
earth. ’’a  The  races  of  men  differ  circumstantially;  they 
agree  essentially.  All  men  bear  the  same  relations  to  the 
first  Adam;  all  are  redeemed  and  may  be  saved  by  the 
Second.  As  all  men  are  in  sin,  so  all  men  need  a Saviour. 
If  the  gospel  can  save  one  man,  it  can  save  every  man. 
What  it  can  do  for  one  man,  it  can  do  for  all  men : “For 
it  is  the  power  of  God  unto  salvation  to  every  one  that  be- 
lieveth;  to  the  Jew  first,  and  also  to  the  Greek. ’’<5 

The  adaptation  of  the  gospel  to  man  is  so  perfect  that 
there  is  no  evil  in  his  nature  which  it  cannot  extirpate; 


a Acts  xvii.  26.  <5  Rom.  i.  1 6. 


A PLEA  FOR  MISSIONS. 


15 


there  is  no  good  possible  to  him,  in  this  world  or  in  the 
next,  which  it  does  not  implant  and  develop. 

The  gospel,  which  is  intended  for  all  men,  and  adapted 
to  all  men,  is  necessary  to  all  men.  Jesus  Christ  is  the 
only  Saviour  of  sinners:  “Neither  is  there  salvation  in  any 
other;  for  there  is  none  other  name  under  heaven  given 
among  men  whereby  we  must  be  saved. 

Whoever  is  saved  is  saved  through  Jesus  Christ.  In  him 
and  by  him  we  live;  in  and  by  him  we  are  saved.  We 
have  no  trouble  about  those  who  die  in  infancy;  God  saves 
them  every  one,  but  through  his  Son.<J 

How  about  the  heathen,  who  have  never  heard  of  Jesus, 
who  have  inherited  idolatries  hoary  with  the  superstitions 
of  three  thousand  years?  We  may  not  go  beyond  the 
Bible;  outside  of  it  we  know  nothing  at  all  on  these  sub- 
jects. 

What  does  the  Bible  say?  Peter,  in  the  house  of  the 
Roman  centurion,  said:  “Of  a truth  I perceive  that  God  is 
no  respecter  of  persons;  but  in  every  nation  he  that  feareth 
him,  and  worketh  righteousness,  is  accepted  with  him.”^ 
Cornelius  was  a Roman,  a soldier,  and  a heathen,  yet  a 
“devout  man,”  with  but  partial  knowledge  of  the  truth. 
What  did  he  do?  Followed  such  light  as  he  had,  and 
“prayed  to  God  alway”  for  more.  God  was  pleased  with 
his  spirit,  and  put  him  in  the  way  of  instruction.  A man 
so  “accepted  with  God”  is  saved,  and  saved  “through 

a Acts  iv.  12. 

b H<nv  God  saves  infants  concerns  us  little.  We  know  they  are 
saved,  although  it  has  pleased  God  to  tell  us  little  about  the  mode  of 
th«ir  salvation;  assured,  however,  that  they  are  so  saved  as  to  enter 
heaven  with  the  Christly,  and  not  with  the  Adamic,  nature.  Infants 
do  not  resist  God’s  grace  as  do  adults;  to  these  last  the  conditions 
are  plain;  “Repentance  toward  God,  and  faith  toward  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ.” 

cActs  X.  34,  35. 


16 


GO  OR  send: 


Jesus  Christ,”  as  Mr.  Wesley  says,  “although  he  knows 
him  not.” 

St.  Paul,  in  expounding  the  same  great  truth — a truth 
that  both  Jews  and  Gentiles  were  slow  to  learn,  that 
“God  is  no  respecter  of  persons” — tells  us,  “For  not 
the  hearers  of  the  law  shall  be  justified  before  God,  but 
the  doers  of  the  law  shall  be  justified.  For  when  the  Gen- 
tiles, which  have  not  the  law,  do  by  nature  the  things  con- 
tained in  the  law,  these  having  not  the  law  are  a law  unto 
themselves:  which  show  the  work  of  the  law  written  in 
their  hearts,  their  conscience  also  bearing  witness,  and  their 
thoughts  the  meanwhile  accusing  or  else  excusing  one  an- 
other. What  can  this  mean?  Many  deep  things  no 
doubt;  but  among  others  this:  a “devout”  heathen,  like 
Cornelius,  is  a better  man  and  in  a better  case  than  an  un- 
devout  man  who  enjoys,  but  does  not  use,  the  full  light  of 
truth.  It  means  this  also,  that  all  men,  even  the  heathen, 
share  the  blessings  of  the  atonement;  for  Jesus  Christ  is 
“the  true  Light,  which  lighteth  every  man  that  cometh  into 
the  world  " b — the  true  Light  which  “shineth  in  darkness,” 
although  “the  darkness  comprehends  it  not.”  The  light 
that  shined  on  the  conscience  of  Cornelius  was  from  the 
“true  Light,”  the  source  and  center  of  all  truth.  AVho- 
ever  has  any  moral  light  may  say  with  truth:  “For  God, 
who  commanded  the  light  to  shine  out  of  darkness,  hath 
shined  in  our  hearts,  to  give  the  light  of  the  knowledge  of 
the  glory  of  God  in  the  face  of  Jesus  Christ. ’V  Such  light 
does  not  originate  in  any  man:  “God  hath  shined  in  our 
hearts.” 

The  Spirit  works  in  all  men,  moving  them  to  do  that 
which  is  pleasing  to  God.  All  men  have  divine  Ijght  and 
help  in  proportion  to  the  divine  requirements.  Is  it  not 


Rom.  ii.  13-15.  ^Johii  i 9.  ^2  Cor.  iv.  6. 


A PLEA  FOR  MISSIONS. 


17 


true  that  human  accountability,  whether  in  heathen  or 
in  Christian  lands,  grows  out  of  man’s  relation  to  the 
atonement  of  Christ  and  to  the  work  of  the  Holy  Spirit? 
Because  Christ  died  and  the  Holy  Spirit  works  in  our 
hearts  we  are  responsible,  and  in  proportion  to  the  degree 
of  light  that  we  have. 

What  do  such  texts  as  these  from  Peter  and  Paul,  and 
others  like  them,  prove  ? This,  and  nothing  more : the 
salvation  of  a heathen  man  is  not  absolutely  impossible; 
his  damnation  is  not  absolutely  inevitable.  We  have  greatly 
abused  and  perverted  such  texts,  “wresting”  them  out  of 
their  proper  connections,  and  extorting  from  them  a mean- 
ing the  Spirit  never  designed  them  to  teach.  We  have 
wanted  excuses  for  selfishness  and  unbelief;  and,  exalting 
these  isolated  texts  into  articles  of  faith,  many  have  settled 
down  comfortably  in  the  conclusion  that  the  condition  of 
the  heathen  is  not  so  bad  after  all.  The  world  has  not  alto- 
gether lacked  men  who  have  professed  to  doubt  whether  we 
should  send  the  gospel  to  the  heathen  at  all,  since  its  light 
will  increase  their  responsibility  and  intensify  their  punish- 
ment should  they  reject  it ! If  this  be  a correct  opinion, 
what  a pity  there  ever  was  such  a thing  as  the  gospel — 
“good  tidings  of  great  joy  which  shall  be  to  all  people”! 
Then  we  might  all  have  been  heathen  1 

It  is  too  plain  to  discuss;  the  gospel  is  just  as  necessary 
to  the  heathen  as  it  is  to  us.  This  is  true,  unless  Confucius 
is  as  good  a teacher  as  Christ ; unless  the  Vedas  are  as  sure 
guides  to  Hindoostanee  idolaters  as  the  Bible  is  to  us. 
Men  forget  that  the  most  debasing  sin  of  heathenism  is  its 
idolatry.  This  is  the  fruitful  source  of  all  other  sins  possi- 
ble to  be  committed;  it  is  itself  the  sin  of  sins,  making 
heathenism  what  it  is,  as  it  is  the  gospel  that  makes  Chris- 
tian civilization  what  it  is. 

Our  appreciation  of  the  condition  and  wants  of  the  hea- 


18 


GO  OR  send: 


then  is  in  exact  proportion  to  our  appreciation  of  the  blessing 
that  the  gospel  is  to  us.  He  who  does  not  understand  that 
the  gospel  is  necessary  to  the  heathen  does  not  understand 
that  it ’s  necessary  to  himself. 

It  is  difficult  to  conceive,  impossible  to  express,  the  tre- 
mendous significance  of  such  familiar  but  fundamental 
truths.  The  rock  we  see  cropping  out  by  the  road-side  may 
have  its  roots  deep  down  in  the  secret  places  of  the  earth. 
We  do  not  see  the  greater  part,  yet  appreciate  none  of  it, 
because  we  are  familiar  with  the  little  that  lies  upon  the 
surface  of  things.  What  can  we  do  in  forming  a conception 
of  the  condition  and  wants,  the  fears  and  hopes,  the  sorrows 
and  agonies,  the  sins  and  ruin,  the  dangers  and  possibilities, 
of  multiplied  millions,  “groaning  and  travailing  in  pain,’’ 
who  never  heard  of  the  Saviour  of  men?  Each  individual 
a human  being — a brother  man,  with  a soul  capable  but 
ignorant  of  God — needing  the  Saviour  and  waiting  for  the 
gospel ! And  there  are  continents  full  of  them! 

We  refuse  to  look  steadily  at  this  dark  and  sorrowful  pro- 
cession, going  its  way  to  eternity.  We  cannot,  while  we 
neglect  them.  If  there  were  only  one  man  in  the  world 
who  had  never  heard  of  Jesus,  it  would  be  worthy  the  com- 
bined efforts  of  heaven  and  earth  to  carry  him  the  “glad 
tidings.’’  What  exertions  have  we  witnessed  to  find  Sir 
John  Franklin — only  lost  in  the  Arctic  seas  ! And  yet  there 
are  hundreds  of  millions  drifting  in  unknown  darkness. 
Saying  nothing  of  pagans  in  Christian  lands,  there  are,  of 
Mohammedans,  160,000,000;  of  Asiatic  Buddhists,  of  one 
sort  and  another,  idolaters  all,  600,000,000;  of  miscella- 
neous heathen  in  Africa  and  in  the  islands  of  the  sea,  200,- 
000,000  more.  If  the  Church  looked  steadily  at  such  facts ; 
if  she  read,  in  the  light  of  the  Bible  and  with  full  faith  in 
God,  their  meaning — so  portentous  for  both  worlds — she 
could  never  rest  till  she  had  “f reached  the  gospel  to  every 


A PLEA  FOR  MISSIONS. 


19 


creature.”  Dr.  Olin  has  said,  as  rightly  as  eloquently: 
“Did  the  Church  really  believe  the  gospel  to  be  as  neces- 
sary to  the  heathen  as  it  is  to  us,  there  would  be  at  once 
and  forever  an  end  to  her  guilty  repose.  They  who  give 
full  credit  to  such  truths  do  not  sleep  over  them.  It  would 
be  easier  to  find  rest  in  our  beds  above  the  throes  of  an 
earthquake.  The  agonies  of  Laocoon  and  his  children, 
dying  in  the  coils  of  the  serpents,  were  but  pastime  com- 
pared with  those  of  the  Church  until  she  had  either  unlocked 
herself  from  the  grapple  of  this  tremendous  conviction,  or 
disburdened  her  conscience  by  a faithful  consecration  of 
her  energies  to  the  work  of  rescuing  the  world  from  its 
doom.  And  yet  it  is  true,  if  the  Bible  is  true,  that  while 
we  dwell  in  peace,  under  our  own  vine  and  fig-tree,  lifting 
up  our  songs  of  praise  in  the  full  city,  and  making  vocal 
the  green  hills  and  valleys  of  our  Christian  land  with  the 
echoes  of  joyous  thanksgiving  to  Him  who  hath  redeemed 
us,  bidding  away  the  sorrows  of  life,  and  defying  the  ter- 
rors of  death,  by  a sure  trust  in  Christ,  and  bright,  full- 
hearted  anticipations  of  heaven,  it  is  true  that  the  myriads 
of  unevangelized  men  are  passing  into  eternity  without  a 
ray  of  saving  light.  They  perish,  sir,  they  perish  ! They 
live  without  hope,  and  die  without  a Saviour ; and  we,  who 
are,  for  the  good  of  the  world,  intrusted  by  Christ  with  the 
deposit  and  monopoly  of  his  grace,  withhold  the  only  anti- 
dote for  sin,  and  thus  become,  in  no  figurative  sense,  acces- 
sories to  their  guilt  and  woe.” 

Underlying  the  whole  question  of  missions  are  these 
three  principles,  clearly  taught  in  the  Scriptures,  and  agree- 
ing with  all  that  we  know  of  God  or  man : 

I.  Jesus  Christ  intends  his  gospel  for  all  men.  2.  It  is 
adapted  to  all  men.  3.  It  is  necessary  to  all  men. 


20 


00  OR  SEND! 


CHAPTER  III. 

The  Duty  of  the  Church. 

IN  1788,  at  a meeting  of  Baptist  ministers  in  Northamp- 
ton, England,  William  Carey  proposed  as  the  topic  for 
discussion,  “ The  duty  of  the  Church  to  attempt  the  spread 
of  the  gospel  among  the  heathen.”  Dr.  Ryland,  one  of 
the  fathers  of  the  denomination,  sprang  to  his  feet,  and  in- 
dignantly denounced  the  proposition.  “Young  man,” 
said  the  excited  Doctor,  “sit  down:  when  God  pleases  to 
convert  the  heathen,  he  will  do  it,  without  your  aid  or 
mine.”  There  seems  to  be  some  force  in  the  observation> 
but  there  is  none.  It  is  singular  that  it  did  not  occur  to 
Dr.  Ryland  that  God  could  do  as  well  without  his  aid  in 
England  as  in  India.  What  pleases  God  we  learn  from  his 
word.  That  word  teaches  us  that  God  is  pleased  to  use 
Christians  in  preaching  the  gospel  to  sinners.  What  God 
might  have  done — why  he  does  not  send  thousands  of  an- 
gels all  round  the  world  preaching  the  gospel — these  are  not 
questions  we  are  to  consider.  As  well  ask  why  he  did  not 
raise  up  a Moses  in  each  nation,  or  give  a complete  Bible, 
printed  and  bound,  with  marginal  references,  in  each  lan- 
guage ! It  did  not  please  him  to  do  this,  because  there  was 
a better  way.  Why  it  would  not  be  best  to  send  the  angels 
to  preach  and  to  circulate  the  Scriptures  in  every  heathen 
land — thus  saving  us  all  the  expense,  and  worry,  and  toil, 
and  sacrifice! — we  “see  in  part;”  but  this  essay  does  not 
allow  the  discussion.  And  it  is  not  needed;  it  is  enough 


A PLEA  FOR  MISSIONS. 


21 


for  us  that  God  chose  none  of  the  plans  that  curiosity  and 
unbelief  suggest  as  possible.  Assuredly  we  dare  not  de- 
sire for  a moment  any  other  plan  than  that  which  he  has 
adopted. 

God  is  now  pleased — his  word  being  authority — to  con- 
vert the  heathen,  and  to  use  his  Church  in  doing  it.  Here- 
tofore, as  now,  God  cooperated  with  man  in  the  work  of 
man’s  salvation.  He  does  this  in  the  salvation  of  one  man, 
and  in  the  salvation  of  the  race.  It  is  out  of  the  question 
to  suppose  that  he  will  ever  adopt  any  other  plan.  We 
need  not  wait  for  new  developments,  for  fresh  revelations. 
The  revelation  of  his  will  is  complete ; he  has  closed  the 
sacred  canon,  and  the  Bible  is  to  have  no  supplemental 
chapters. 

The  faith  “was  once  delivered  unto  the  saints”- — once 
for  all.  a 

There  is  but  one  salvation,  that  which  is  brought  to  light 
in  the  gospel  of  the  Son  of  God.  And  God,  who  sees  the 
end  from  the  beginning,  has  made,  can  make,  no  mistakes, 
that  he  should  change  his  plans.  He  does  not  experiment 
in  order  to  discover  new,  or  perfect  old,  methods. 

“To  the  law  and  to  the  testimony.”  What  does  the 
Book  say?  Beyond  that  we  cannot  go;  contrary  to  that 
no  good  man  wishes  to  go;  by  that  we  shall  find  out  the 
truth,  if  we  are  willing  to  know  it. 

Christ  Jesus,  having  finished  his  personal  ministry,  was 
about  to  ascend  to  heaven,  to  “sit  at  the  right  hand  of 
God,”  to  enter  upon  his  mediatorial  reign.  His  disciples 
were  “slow  of  heart  to  believe;”  they  understood  his  plans 
with  difficulty,  and  acquiesced  in  them  reluctantly.  They 
were  still  dreaming  of  temporal  kingdoms,  and  of  the  resto- 
ration of  David’s  throne.  And  when,  at  last,  they  were 


Jude  3. 


22 


GO  OR  send: 


brought  to  see  that  “ the  kingdom  of  heaven”  was  to  be  a 
spiritual  kingdom,  it  was  a long  time  before  they  understood 
that  Gentiles  had  as  much  interest  in  it  as  the  Jews. a 

Let  us  read  the  great  commission,  not  as  the  disciples 
first  heard  it,  but  as  their  subsequent  conduct  and  the  fuller 
revelation  of  God’s  will  explain  it: 

“And  Jesus  came  and  spake  unto  them,  saying.  All  power 
is  given  unto  me  in  heaven  and  in  earth.  Go  ye,  there- 
fore, and  teach  all  nations,  baptizing  them  in  the  name  of 
the  Father, and  of  the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost;  teach- 
ing them  to  observe  all  things  whatsoever  I have  commanded 
you  : and  lo,  I am  with  you  alway,  even  unto  the  end  of 
the  world.  Amen  And  as  the  commission  reads  in  St. 
Mark  : “Go  ye  into  all  the  world,  and  preach  the  gospel  to 
every  creature.  ”c 

What  did  Jesus,  in  these  words,  command?  “Togo,” 
not  staying  to  preach  in  Jerusalem  only,  as  if  Christ  only 
died  for  Jerusalem.  They  were  to  “go  into  all  the  world.” 
It  means  just  what  it  says : they  were  not  to  be  shut  in  by 
Judea,  by  Samaria,  or  by  the  empire  of  Rome.  “The  field 
is  the  world,”  and  “the  world  was  their  parish.”  They 
were  to  “disciple  all  nations,”  for  that  is  what  “teach  all 
nations”  means.  Not  the  Jewish  nation  only,  but  all  na- 
tions: in  the  plans  of  Christ  “there  is  neither  Greek  nor 
Jew,  circumcision  nor  uncircumcision.  Barbarian,  Scythian, 
bond  nor  free.”  They  were  to  “disciple  all  nations,”  to 
“preach  the  gospel  to  every  creature,”  proclaiming  their 
message  to  the  individual  mind,  and  heart,  and  conscience. 


a They  did  not  understand  this  till  long  after  the  Pentecost.  It  re- 
quired a miracle  to  break  down  the  prejudices  and  enlighten  the  eyes 
of  Peter.  See  Acts  x.  9-16,  34,  35.  Acts  xi.  will  tell  us  how  slowly 
the  “ apostles  and  brethren  in  Judea  ” consented  to  the  fellowship  of 
Gentile  converts. 

i Matt,  xxviii.  18-20.  cMark  xvi.  15. 


A PLEA  FOR  MISSIONS. 


23 


They  were  to  “baptize”  the  nations  “in  the  name  of  the 
Father,  and  of  the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost,”  thus 
formally  bringing  them  into  the  fellowship  of  the  Church 
of  Christ.  And  they  were  to  “teach  them  to  observe  all 
things  whatsoever  he  had  commanded  them,”  bringing  them 
to  obey  the  gospel  as  the  rule  of  right  and  the  law  of  life. 
All  this  is  very  plain  : it  pleased  Christ  that  all  nations 
should  be  sat’ed  by  his  gospel,  and  that  his  disciples  should 
“go,”  and  “preach,”  and  “disciple,”  and  “teach.” 

To  whom  are  these  words  of  the  Master  spoken?  To  the 
disciples  only  who  stood  by  him?  No:  to  them,  and  to 
all  who  “should  believe  on  him  through  their  word.”  They 
are  addressed  to  all  Christians,  preachers,  and  laymen,  of 
every  age.  Whatever  these  words  meant  to  the  few  disci- 
ples who  heard  them,  they  mean  to  us  all.  There  is  nothing 
local  or  temporary  in  them;  they  are  the  words  of  a King 
who  never  dies;  they  are  addressed,  with  divine  authority, 
to  every  one  of  his  subjects.  They  are  as  binding  upon  us  as 
upon  the  eleven  apostles  who  saw  him  ascend  to  heaven. 
As  well  confine  his  blessed  promise,  “Lo,  I am  with  you 
alway,  even  unto  the  end  of  the  world,”  to  the  apostles 
as  to  shut  up  exclusively  to  their  ministry  the  great  com- 
mission. a 

St.  Paul,  in  many  places,  shows  that  God’s  plan  of  prop- 
agating the  gospel  is  by  the  ministry  of  those  whom  he  has 


a To  understand  “ with  you  ” only  of  the  apostles  and  their  (?)  succes- 
sors is  to  destroy  the  whole  force  of  these  most  mighty  words.  The 
command  is  to  the  universal  Church,  to  be  performed,  in  the  nature  of 
things,  by  her  ministers  and  teachers,  the  manner  of  appointing  which 
is  not  here  prescribed,  but  to  be  learned  in  the  unfoldings  of  Provi- 
dence recorded  in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  who,  by  his  special  ordi- 
nance, were  the  founders  and  first  builders  of  the  Church,  but  whose 
office,  on  that  very  account,  precluded  the  idea  of  succession  and  re- 
newal.— Dean  Alford. 


24 


GO  OR  sknd: 


already  saved  from  their  sins.  Let  one  quotation  answer : 
“And  all  things  are  of  God,  who  hath  reconciled  us  to 
himself  by  Jesus  Christ,  and  hath  given  to  us  the  ministry 
of  reconciliation,  to  wit,  that  God  was  in  Christ,  reconcil- 
ing the  world  unto  himself,  not  imputing  their  trespasses 
unto  them;  and  hath  committed  unto  us  the  ministry  of 
reconciliation.” 

“Now,  then,”  exclaims  this  first  and  greatest  missionary 
to  the  heathen,  in  a letter  to  the  Corinthians:  “We  are 
embassadors  for  Christ,  as  though  God  did  beseech  you  by 
us:  we  pray  you  in  Christ’s  stead,  be  ye  reconciled  to 
God.”cz 

This  principle  underlies  the  very  existence  of  the  Church, 
that  those  who  are  already*" reconciled  to  God”  should 
preach  the  “ministry  of  reconciliation”  to  those  who  are 
not.  The  Church  is  not  a close  corporation,  as  the  ancient 
Pharisees  supposed,  its  business  in  this  world  being  solely 
to  carry  out  the  great  commission.  And  no  purity  of  or- 
thodoxy or  perfection  of  organization  can  make  that  a 
Church  of  Christ  which  refuses  obedience.  There  may  be 
every  thing  else  but  this — creeds,  rituals,  traditions,  ma- 
chinery, wealth,  learning,  numbers,  architecture,  music, 
millinery,  and  all  manner  of  human  upholstery  as  substi- 
tutes for  a Church;  but  to  take  no  part  in  the  evangeliza- 
tion of  the  heathen  is  to  be  out  of  sympathy  with  Christ, 
and  out  of  harmony  with  his  plans.  The  true  successors^ 
of  the  apostles  are  those  who  obey,  “as  much  as  in  them 
is,”  our  Lord’s  command,  “ Go  ye  into  all  the  world,  and 
preach  the  gospel  to  every  creature.” 


a 2 Cor.  V.  18-20. 

b Of  that  assumed,  direct,  and  manipulated  “ apostolical  succession,” 
in  which  certain  make  their  boast,  forgetting,  as  it  seems.  Gal.  vi.  14. 
Bishop  Pierce  has  well  said : “ It  is  a fable,  without  even  the  merit  of 
being  cunningly  devised.” 


A PLEA  FOR  MISSIONS. 


25 


Our  obligation  to  do  our  part  in  the  evangelization  of 
the  heathen  does  not  originate  in  our  denominational 
Church-memberships.  It  is  not  simply  that  as  Methodists, 
or  Baptists,  or  Presbyterians,  we  are  brought  under  obliga- 
tion by  our  Conferences,  Conventions,  or  Assemblies.  If 
we  go  or  decline  to  go,  if  we  pay  or  refuse  to  pay,  if  we 
pray  or  neglect  to  pray,  for  the  conversion  of  the  heathen, 
in  any  case  it  cannot  be  simply  a question  between  us  and 
our  highest  Church  authorities.  It  is  a question  between 
us  and  our  Lord  and  King,  our  Saviour  Jesus  Christ.  To 
do  our  part,  is  to  obey  Christ;  to  refuse,  is  to  disobey 
Christ;  for  the  obligation  grows  out  of  our  relation  to 
Christ  and  to  our  fellow-men.  And  this  obligation  is 
measured  by  the  blessing  we  have  received  from  him. 
What  he  said  to  the  twelve  he  says  to  us : “Freely  ye  have 
received,  freely  give.”  His  gracious  gift  is  not  bestowed 
on  us  to  keep,  but  to  use.  Stupendous  is  the  foil}’,  as  de- 
served as  terrible  the  punishment,  of  the  unfaithful — because 
unbelieving — servant  who  “hid  his  Lord’s  money  in  the 
earth.”  A bad  use  of  money  that ! a but  no  worse  than 
the  gospel  only  enjoyed.  The  divine  word  is,  “Occupy 
till  I come.” 

If  there  were  but  one  Christian  in  the  world,  he  would 
be  obliged,  by  every  consideration  of  love  to  man,  and  of 
gratitude  and  of  loyalty  to  Christ,  to  be  a missionary.  Let 
us  well  consider  that  numbers  do  not  dilute  our  obligations. 
They  rather  increase  them,  since  numbers  allow  organiza- 
tion, and  organization  multiplies  power  and  opportunity. 
But  the  obligation  is  individual.  We  cannot  escape  it ; 
we  cannot  divide  it ; we  cannot  be  freed  from  it.  If  we 
are  so  unfortunate  as  to  belong  to  a Church  that  will  not 
take  part  in  the  evangelization  of  the  heathen,  and  we  can- 

a Not  worse  than  to  tie  it  up  in  old  stockings,  or  to  hide  it  away  in 
secret  places — to  keep. 


26 


GO  OR  send: 


not  convert  that  Church  “from  the  error  of  its  ways,” 
thereby  “saving”  it  “from  death,”  and  its  opposition,  or 
its  apathy,  or  its  blindness,  is  such  that  we  are  effectually 
hindered  from  doing  our  part,  then  we  must  depart  from 
that  Church ; and  failing  to  find  another  that  will  endeavor 
to  obey  Christ’s  great  command,  we  must  organize  a new 
“society  of  faithful  men.”  Christ’s  work  must  go  on,  and 
no  Christian  man,  in  sympathy  with  the  Spirit  of  Jesus, 
and  fully  enlightened  as  to  his  duty  to  perishing  sinners, 
can  stay  in  a thoroughly  non-missionary  Church.  That 
Christian  man  who  lives  in  the  enjoyment  of  the  blessing 
of  the  gospel,  and  dies  without  having  done  something  for 
the  salvation  of  the  heathen,  although  through  the  mercy 
of  God  he  may  be  pardoned  and  saved,  has  failed  to  do 
his  duty  either  to  his  Saviour  or  to  his  fellow-man. a 

Christ  calls  some  to  go  in  person  to  preach  the  gospel  to 
the  heathen.  Let  them  go;  Heaven  can  put  no  higher 
honor  upon  them.  Men  so  honored  may  not  trifle  with 
“the  heavenly  vision.”  They  “go  bound  in  the  Spirit;”<J 
and  no  ill-advised,  though  affectionate,  warnings  of  priva- 
tions and  dangers  may  excuse  them.  And  let  parents  and 
friends  take  care  how  they  hinder  those  whom  God  calls  to 
preach  the  gospel  of  his  Son  to  the  “ nations  that  sit  in 
darkness.”  Let  them  read  and  consider  till  they  under- 
stand the  following  true  story  told  by  Dr.  Durbin  : 

“There  was  a race  of  parents  that  could  raise  a race  of 
missionaries.  Let  me  give  you  an  instance  of  an  old  Mo- 
ravian woman.  A friend  called  upon  her,  with  sadness  in 
his  looks.  ‘Your  son,’  said  he  to  the  mother,  ‘is  gone.’ 

a “ The  question,”  said  Bishop  Pierce,  upon  one  occasion,  at  a mis- 
sionary meeting,  and  with  thrilling  effect,  “ is  not  simply  whether  the 
heathen  can  be  saved  without  the  gospel,  but  whether  we  can  be  saved 
if  we  do  not  give  it  to  them.” 

^See  Acts  xx.  22,  and  xxi.  10-14. 


A PLEA  FOR  MISSIONS. 


27 


‘Is  Thomas  gone  to  heaven  through  the  missionary  life? 
Would  to  God  that  he  would  call  my  son  John!’  Well, 
John  did  become  a missionary;  and  he  fell.  And  this 
time  the  committee  were  very  sad;  but  before  opening 
their  lips,  the  old  woman  anticipated  the  story,  and  ex- 
claimed: ‘Thank  God!  would  that  he  would  call  my  last 
son,  William  !’  And  William,  too,  went  and  fell;  when  the 
noble  woman  exclaimed:  ‘Would  that  I had  a thousand 
sons  to  give  to  God  !’  O would  that  I had  a thousand  such 
mothers!  then  would  our  ranks  be  full.” 

The  devoted  Melville  B.  Cox,  as  he  was  starting  to  Africa, 
said  to  a friend : “ If  I should  fall,  you  must  come  and 
write  my  epitaph.”  “What  shall  I write?”  asked  the 
friend.  “Write,  'Though  a thousand  fall,  let  not  Africa  be 
given  up.  ’ ’ ' 

Whom  Christ  calls  not  to  go,  he  calls  to  send.  And  the 
one  class  is  as  much  bound  as  the  other.  If  we  are  not 
called  to  go,  it  is  plain  enough  that  we  are  called  to  minis- 
ter to  those  who  do  go.  “Who  goeth,”  says  St.  Paul,  “a 
warfare  any  time  at  his  own  charges?” 

An  eminent  writer  says  : “As  all  the  disciples  of  Christ 
are  required  to  take  a part  in  the  propagation  of  his  gos- 
pel throughout  the  world — those  who  remain  at  home  are 
bound  to  sustain  and  minister  to  those  who  go  abroad,  just 
as  much  as  citizens  in  civil  life  are  bound  to  .support  their 
fellow-countrymen  who  go  forth  as  soldiers  to  fight  their 
country’s  battles.  Therefore,  let  every  servant  of  Christ 
cheerfully  and  heartily  perform  that  part  of  the  work  which 
may  be  assigned  to  him  in  the  providence  and  grace  of 
God,  that  they  who  sow  and  they  who  reap  may  rejoice  to- 
gether.” 

Nothing  is  plainer:  Christ  commands  the  Church  to 
evangelize  the  world. 

We  must  go — or  send. 


28 


GO  OR  send: 


CHAPTER  IV. 

Do  Missions  Pay? 

The  best  wish  Sidney  Smith  had  for  the  missionaries 
was  that  they  “might  disagree  with  the  cannibals  that 
should  eat  them.” 

This  brilliant  and  worldly  churchman  felt  called  upon  to 
write  down  the  Baptist  Mission  at  Serampore,  India.  His 
rejoinder  to  a review  of  his  very  offensive  articles  opened 
with  these  remarks:  “In  rooting  out  a nest  of  consecrated 
cobblers, a:  and  in  bringing  to  light  such  a perilous  heap  of 
trash  as  we  were  obliged  to  work  through  in  our  articles 
on  Methodists  and  missionaries,  we  are  generally  considered 
to  have  rendered  a useful  service  to  the  cause  of  rational 
religion.” 

Surely  this  is  a fragment  of  some  pagan  tract  against 
the  Nazarenes  in  the  early  years  of  Christianity  !<5  No;  a 
pagan  did  not  write  it,  but  a man  of  letters  and  genius,  and 
a clergyman  of  the  Church  of  England.  And  the  Edin- 
burgh Review  published  it  but  a little  more  than  sixty  years 
ago.  So  unfamiliar  were  English  Christians  with  the  doc- 

a Dr.  Carey  had  been  a shoemaker. 

b Compare  a passage  from  Caecilius — quoted  by  Pressense — deploring 
the  progress  of  Christianity:  “One  is  compelled  to  groan  at  the  sight 
of  a league  formed  against  the  gods  by  men  belonging  to  a miserable, 
illegal,  accursed  sect — men  who  make  disciples  of  the  lowest  of  the 
people,  of  silly,  credulous  women,  easily  misled,  if  only  because  of 
their  sex.” 


A PLEA  FOR  MISSIONS. 


29 


trine  that  it  is  the  duty  of  the  Church  to  evangelize  the 
heathen,  that  such  sentiments  found  applause  in  polite,  if 
not  in  pious,  circles.  We  have  seen  how  Dr.  Ryland  re- 
ceived Carey’s  motion  to  discuss  the  question.  When  Carey’s 
heart  took  fire  with  the  sublime  and  inspired  purpose  of 
giving  the  Bible  to  the  Hindoos  in  their  native  language, 
the  missionary  idea  had  hardly  a place  in  the  mind  of  the 
Church. 

“When  we  began,”  says  Dr.  Fuller,  one  of  the  few  lead- 
ers that  sympathized  with  the  “consecrated  cobbler,” 
“there  was  little  or  no  respectability  among  us;  not  so 
much  as  a squire  to  sit  in  the  chair,  or  an  orator  to  make 
speeches  to  him.  Hence  good  Dr.  Stennett  advised  the 
London  preachers  to  stand  aloof,  and  not  to  commit  them- 
selves.” When  Dr.  Fuller  went  begging  from  door  to  door 
to  raise  money  enough  to  pay  Carey’s  passage  to  India,  he 
found  so  little  sympathy  that  he  says : “ I frequently  retired 
from  the  more  public  streets  to  the  back  lanes,  that  I might 
not  be  seen  to  weep  over  my  disappointments.” 

The  few  missionaries  that  were  in  India  in  the  early  part 
of  the  present  century,  were  long  exposed  to  the  relentless 
persecutions  of  the  half-paganized  officers  of  the  East  India 
Company.  Mr.  Wilberforce  pleaded  their  cause  with  his 
noblest  eloquence  for  more  than  twenty  years  in  Parliament, 
and  it  was  not  till  June,  1813,  that  English  law  protected 
them  in  their  plainest  civil  rights.  Such  circumstances  will 
help  us  to  appreciate  what  the  history  plainly  shows,  that 
the  modern  missionary  movement  is  a comparatively  recent 
one.  This  must  be  remembered  in  considering  whether 
mission-work  pays. 

The  Protestant  world,  according  to  the  most  recent  re- 
liable reports,  claims  fifty-two  missionary  societies.  Of 
these,  only  two — the  Gospel  Propagation  Society  in  Eng- 
land, and  the  Moravian  Missionary  Society  on  the  Conti- 


30 


GO  OR  send: 


nent — were  in  existence  in  the  first  half  of  the  last  century; 
the  first  being  organized  in  1701,  the  second  in  1732. 
Three  other  missionary  societies  were  formed  during  the 
closing  decade  of  the  last  century;  one  of  them  on  the 
Continent,  and  two  of  them  in  England.  The  Baptist 
Missionary  Society,  brought  into  being  through  the  quench- 
less zeal  of  Carey,  was  organized  in  1792  ; the  London  Mis- 
sionary Society  in  1 795  ; the  Netherland  Missionary  Society 
in  1797. Only  think  of  it!  The  great  Wesleyan  Mis- 
sionary Society  was  not  properly  .organized  till  1817;  and 
there  was  no  Methodist  Missionary  Society  in  the  United 
States  till  1819.  Of  the  eighteen  American  societies,  not 
one  existed  before  1810 — when  the  American  Board  of 
Foreign  Missions  was  constituted.  Of  the  fifty-two  Prot- 
estant missionary  societies  in  the  world  to-day,  twenty- 
eight  have  been  organized  since  1840. 

We  may  say  with  almost  historical  accuracy,  that  modern 
missions  are  not  older  than  our  century,  and,  consider- 
ing the  movement  as  a whole,  we  may  safely  say  that 
it  belongs  to  the  last  half-century.  Nearly  all  that  has  been 
done  for  the  conversion  of  the  heathen,  has  been  done  in 
the  last  fifty  years.  At  the  close  of  the  last  century.  Dr. 
Fuller  could  hardly  raise  money  enough  to  pay  Carey’s  pas- 
sage to  India,  and  there  were  scarcely  a score  of  mis- 
sionaries engaged  in  the  work  of  converting  the  heathen 
Vv^orld. 

In  1871  there  were  13,924  Christian  laborers — including 
foreign  missionaries  and  native  pastors  and  teachers — act- 
ing, under  the  direction  of  the  various  Boards,  in  heathen 
lands.  There  are  now,  in  the  close  of  1873,  about  15,000. 
The  revenues  of  these  Boards  during  that  year  will,  it  is  be- 
lieved, amount  to  nearly  eight  million  dollars. 


a See  at  the  close  of  this  essay  a tabular  view  of  the  societies. 


A PLEA  FOE  MISSIONS. 


31 


Does  this  investment  of  men  and  money  pay?  The  an- 
swer cannot  be  given  in  round  numbers;  there  are  some 
facts  which  cannot  be  compressed  into  mere  statistical 
tables.  Cotton  bags  may  be  weighed  and  counted,  but  the 
highest  and  most  spiritual  facts  of  the  history  of  our  race 
cannot  be  told  off  by  any  numbers  whatsoever.  When  the 
spies  had  “gone  up  and  searched  the  land”  of  Canaan — 
walking  to  and  fro  in  the  midst  of  it — they  were  in  despair 
of  giving  an  adequate  description  of  its  excellence  to  the 
host  that  waited  in  the  wilderness  for  their  report.  So,  as 
the  best  they  could  do,  “they  came  unto  the  brook  of 
Eshcol,  and  cut  down  from  thence  a branch  with  one  clus- 
ter of  grapes,  and  they  bare  it  between  two,  upon  a staff ; 
and  they  brought  of  the  pomegranates  and  of  the  figs.”  And 
of  the  goodly  land  through  which  the  study  of  missionary 
history  leads  us,  what  can  be  said — in  these  limits?  Let  it 
suffice  to  “bring  of  the  pomegranates  and  of  the  figs,” 
with  a few  “clusters  of  grapes.” 

We  will  first  consider,  very  briefly,  a few  of  the  results 
of  missionary  labors  upon  detached  and  isolated  popula- 
tions— in  some  of  the  islands  of  the  Pacific,  for  instance. 

I.  The  Sandwich  Islands. — The  Sandwich  Islands  were 
discovered  by  Captain  Cook,  in  1778 — two  years  after  the 
declaration  of  American  Independence.  These  islands 
were  then  in  the  gross  darkness  of  heathenism — human 
sacrifices  forming  part  of  their  religious  rites.  On  the  23d 
of  October,  1819 — fifty-four  years  ago — amissionary  family 
of  twenty-two  persons,  sent  out  by  the  American  Board  of 
Foreign  Missions,  sailed  out  of  Boston  harbor  for  Hawaii, 
the  largest  of  the  group.  On  Sunday  morning,  June  12, 
1870,  a distinguished  native  pastor,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Kuaea, 
preached  in  the  Hawaiian  language,  from  Lev.  xxv.  ii,  a 
jubilee  sermon,  celebrating  the  deliverance  of  his  nation 
from  the  bondage  of  idolatry,  and  the  general  establishment 


32 


GO  OR  send: 


of  the  Christian  religion. a The  same  year  the  Board  struck 
the  Sandwich  Islands  from  its  roll  of  missions — the  Church 
there  having  become  self-sustaining. 

And,  as  the  best  evidence  of  the  thoroughness  of  the 
gospel-work  accomplished  during  these  fifty  years,  we  men- 
tion that  the  native  Church  had  not  only  become  sulf-sup- 
porting,  but  had  organized  a missionary  society  of  its  own. 
At  the  anniversary  of  this  society,  in  1871,  the  meeting 
lasted  ten  days,  and  it  was  found  that  every  Church 
had  sent  its  contribution.  From  which  let  us  learn  a 
much-needed  lesson  of  thorough  method  and  hearty  liber- 
ality. 

At  the  close  of  the  last  century  the  French  infidels  were 
denying  the  existence  of  God,  and  declaring,  by  resolution 
of  the  National  Assembly,  that  Christianity  was  abolished. 
About  that  time  Captain  Cook  found  the  Sandwich  Islands. 
They,  too,  were  without  God;  the  French  had  rejected 
him — the  islanders  had  never  known  him.  In  the  May  of 
1872  the  children  of  these  heathen  heard  of  the  miseries 
that  had  come  upon  France  by  the  late  war  with  Germany. 
They  were  under  no  obligations  of  gratitude  to  the  French, 

a At  the  national  celebration  of  the  jubilee,  on  the  Wednesday  after, 
the  king,  with  the  members  of  his  cabinet,  and  the  representatives  of 
foreign  nations,  attended.  We  must  afford  the  reader  one  glimpse  of 
the  inspiring  scene  from  Dr.  Anderson’s  deeply  interesting  history  of 
the  mission-work  in  the  islands : “ The  children  occupied  the  spacious 
galleries  of  the  Gawaiahoo,  or  great  Stone  Church,  and  the  body  of  the 
house  was  filled  to  repletion  with  adults.  The  king  then  entered  the 
church,  with  Emma,  queen  dowager,  attended  by  his  ministers.  He 
was  received  by  the  audience  standing,  the  choir  singing  a version  of 
‘God  save  the  King’  in  the  Hawaiian  language.  The  scene  was  im- 
pressive. On  the  front  of  the  gallery  was  the  inscription,  in  evergreen, 

‘ 1820 — Jubilee — 1870,’  and  beneath  it  the  national  motto:  ‘Na  man 
ka  eao  ka  aina  i ka  pono.'  ‘ The  Life  of  the  Land  is  preserved  by 
Righteousness.’  ” 


A PLEA  FOR  MISSIONS. 


33 


but  the  religion  of  Jesus  had  kindled  s)'mpathies  wider 
than  their  ocean,  and  the  poor  islanders  sent  a contribution 
of  $2,000  for  the  relief  of  their  distressed  brethren,  the 
French  peasants,  the  other  side  of  the  world.  So  true  is  it 
that  only  the  religion  of  Jesus  Christ  teaches  the  reality 
and  obligations  of  our  universal  brotherhood. 

(With  this  read  St.  Paul’s  eulogy  of  the  Church  in  Mace- 
donia— 2 Cor.  viii.  i-6.) 

Some  ill-informed  objectors  tell  us:  ‘‘Yes,  but  in  spite 
of  Christianity,  the  population  decreases.”  Dr.  Ander- 
son’s history  shows  most  conclusively,  that  but  for  Chris- 
tianity, the  population  would,  by  this  time,  have  disap- 
peared. Besides  the  disease  introduced  by  the  seamen  of 
Captain  Cook’s  ship — as  his  historian  acknowledged — which 
did  much  to  depopulate  the  island,  we  must  mention  that 
thousands  more  were  swept  away  by  the  rum  and  other  in- 
toxicating liquors  carried  thither  by  English  and  American 
traders.  Thus  do  the  ungodly  of  Christian  lands  fight 
against  the  missionaries.  Nevertheless,  Christianity,  by  its 
conserving  power,  has  “saved  much  people  alive.” 

2.  Madagascar. — About  one  hundred  and  twenty  miles 
east  of  the  southern  coast  of  Africa  is  the  island  of  Mada- 
gascar. “The  island,”  according  to  a recent  and  trust- 
worthy report,  “contains  about  five  million  inhabitants. 
It  is  twice  as  large  as  England,  Scotland  and  Ireland,  put 
together.”  Fifty-five  years  ago  its  whole  population  was 
unmixed  heathen — with  all  manner  of  idolatries  and  vices. 
In  i8i8  two  missionaries,  with  their  wives,  under  the  direc- 
tion of  the  London  Missionary  Society,  landed  in  Mada- 
gascar, and  began  to  preach.  One  of  the  missionaries  and 
both  the  ladies  died  within  seven  weeks  after  their  arrival, 
but  the  survivor — the  Rev.  William  Ellis,  lately  deceased — 
nobly  stood  by  his  work.  He  was  soon  reinforced,  and  for 
ten  years  the  missionaries  were  encouraged  and  protected  by 


34 


GO  OR  send: 


King  Radama  I.,  on  account  of  secular  advantages  he 
hoped  to  obtain.  They  improved  their  time,  establisliing 
Christian  schools,  translating  and  circulating  the  Bible — a 
few  hopeful  converts  being  made,  and  much  preparatory 
work  being  done.  In  1828  King  Radama  died,  and  was 
succeeded  by  the  eldest  of  his  twelve  wives.  She  was  more 
heathen  than  diplomatist,  and,  driving  the  missionaries 
from  the  island,  began  a dreadful  persecution,  that  did 
not  cease  till  her  death,  in  1861.  Since  the  days  of  the 
apostles  there  has  not  been  a more  wonderful  history. 

A recent  writer  on  the  Church  in  Madagascar,  in  the 
Missionary  World,  says:  “The  work  was  of  God,  and  it 
was  not  his  will  that  it  should  die  out.  The  seed  of  the 
kingdom  germinated,  sprang  up,  and  under  the  genial  in- 
fluences of  the  rain  and  sunshine  of  heaven,  with  very  lit- 
tle of  human  instrumentality,  a rich  harvest  was  produced 
to  the  honor  and  glory  of  God.  The  written  word — which 
many  of  the  natives  had  learned  to  read  before  the  expul- 
sion of  the  missionaries — was  wonderfully  blessed.  A num- 
ber of  native  teachers  were  raised  up,  by  the  providence  and 
grace  of  God,  to  instruct  their  fellow-countrymen,  so  that 
when,  on  the  accession  of  Radama  II.,  the  island  was  at 
once  opened  to  the  heralds  of  the  gospel,  the  converts  who 
came  forth  from  their  hiding-places  were  numbered  by 
thousands.” 

What  vitality  is  in  the  genuine  gospel-seed  ! 

During  the  long  night  of  their  persecution,  these  con- 
verts were  accustomed  to  hold  midnight  meetings.  They 
met  in  remote  and  isolated  places,  kept  watch  against 
their  enemies,  and  whispered  their  devotions.  There  has 
been  no  worthier  chapter  in  the  history  of  the  Church  since 
the  days  of  the  great  Roman  persecutions,  when  the  Chris- 
tians worshiped  in  the  Catacombs,  and,  when  detected, 
died  in  the  arena.  These  Madagascar  saints  have  given  us 


A PLEA  FOR  MISSIONS. 


35 


a new  evidence  of  the  truth  and  power  of  the  gospel,  and 
they  are  worthy  to  be  enrolled  in  the  noble  army  of  con- 
fessors “of  whom  the  world  is  not  worthy.” 

So  mighty  w'as  the  influence  of  this  secret  leaven,  that  by 
the  9th  of  September,  1869,  idolatry  was  formally  abolished 
by  the  government.  The  royal  idols  were  publicly  burned, 
and  the  present  sovereign  was  crowmed,  in  the  presence  of 
the  people,  with  appropriate  Christian  ceremonies.  As  far 
back  as  1869,  two  hundred  and  eighty  villages  were  sup- 
plied with  native  pastors  and  teachers.  And,  although  a 
part  of  the  island  where  the  queen  has  no  jurisdiction  is 
still  pagan — as  a part  of  England,  held  by  the  heathen 
Danes,  was  in  the  time  of  Alfred — the  popularity  of  the 
“new' religion”  is  the  greatest  danger  that  now  threatens 
the  Church  in  Madagascar. 

3.  The  Tahiti  Islands. — The  London  Missionary  Society, 
in  1797 — two  years  after  its  organization — began  its  labors 
in  the  South  Seas.  For  a long  time  Tahiti  was  the  head- 
quarters of  the  mission;  but,  after  many  dreary  years,  there 
w’as  no  promise  of  dawn  to  the  discouraged  missionaries. 
In  addition  to  the  ordinary  discouragements  of  heathen 
darkness  and  sin,  their  work  was  often  interrupted  by  the 
horrors  of  tribal  wars.  At  such  times  the  missionaries  had 
to  flee  for  their  lives.  During  one  of  these  enforced  ab- 
sences, fruit  began  to  appear.  Two  native  servants,  who 
had  “given  no  sign,”  had  received  into  their  hearts  the 
seeds  of  truth.  They  began  to  pray — feeling  their  w'ay 
through  the  darkness  to  God.  Others  joined  them,  and 
w'hen  the  missionaries  returned,  there  was  quite  a number 
of  praying  people  to  welcome  them — the  king  himself  soon 
asking  them  to  instruct  him. 

Here — as  it  teaches  a lesson  to  people  who  doubt,  and  to 
“Boards  of  Managers”  that  hesitate,  seeing  that  they 
know  not  the  power  of  God,  nor  the  vitality  of  the  seed 


36 


GO  OR  send: 


of  truth — “growing  secretly” — read  a paragraph  from  an 
interesting  sketch  of  the  mission-work  in  Tahiti : 

“Meantime  the  directors  at  home,  knowing  nothing  of 
this”  (communication  with  distant  lands  was  slow  in  those 
days), “were  consulting  on  the  advisability  of  abandoning 
a mission  on  which  fifteen  years  of  useless  toil  had  been 
expended.  Only  a few  opposed  the  measure,  but  their 
counsels  and  proposals  prevailed,  and  instead  of  the  order 
to  withdraw,  letters  of  encouragement  were  forwarded  to 
the  missionaries.  Strange  to  say,  the  very  ship  which  carried 
these  letters  was  crossed  by  another  vessel  conveying  to 
England,  not  only  the  news  of  the  entire  overthrow  of  idol- 
atry in  Tahiti,  but  also  the  rejected  idols,  as  tangible  proof 
of  the  commencement  of  a great  and  glorious  work  in  that 
part  of  Polynesia.  This  pleasing  intelligence  reached 
England  in  the  month  of  October,  1813,  from  which  period 
the  rapid  and  extensive  spread  of  the  gospel  was  truly 
astonishing.” 

An  instructive  divertisement — the  out-of-heart  direc- 
tors receiving  and  examining  their  package  of  “rejected 
idols!  ” 

4.  The  Friendly  Islands. — In  1797  the  London  Mission- 
ary Society  established  a mission  in  the  Friendly  Islands — ■ 
a group  lying  twenty  degrees  south  of  the  equator.  After 
a short  stay,  three  of  the  missionaries  were  murdered  by  the 
natives,  and  the  rest  driven  away.  Twenty-two  years  after 
this,  the  Wesleyan  Missionary  Society  established  a mission 
in  Tonga,  the  largest  of  this  group  of  islands.  For  a long 
time  the  missionaries  labored  faithfully  without  any  visible 
signs  of  success ; but  after  fifteen  years,  they  gathered  the 
fruit  of  their  labors.  Much  preparatory  work  had  been 
done — and  when  great  results  are  to  be  accomplished,  such 
work  must  always  and  in  all  fields  be  done.  During  this 
time  a few  persons  were  led  to  renounce  idolatry.  Buc  io 


A PLEA  FOR  MISSIONS. 


37 


1834  the  little  Tongan  Church  was  visited  with  one  of  the 
most  remarkable  revivals  of  religion  since  the  day  of  Pen- 
tecost. And  in  this  revival  in  Tonga  there  were  signs — 
though  not  in  tongues  of  fire — that  identify  its  origin  be- 
yond the  possibility  of  doubt.  Its  beginning  is  thus  de- 
scribed by  one  of  the  historians  of  Christianity  in  the  South 
Sea  Islands — a Wesleyan  Methodist,  as  his  words  will  show : 
“It  commenced  in  the  Island  of  Vavau,  one  of  the  group, 
where  Messrs.  Turner  and  Cargill,  and  a little  band  of 
faithful  leaders,  had  agreed  to  enter  into  their  closets  every 
day  at  noon  to  plead  for  this  one  thing.’’  Their  prayers 
were  soon  and  suddenly  answered.  A native  local  preacher 
was  preaching  at  a village  called  Utni,  on  Tuesday,  the 
23d  of  July,  1834,  on  Christ’s  compassion  toward  Jerusa- 
lem, when  the  word  came  with  power  to  the  whole  congre- 
gation. They  ryept,  and  prayed,  and  earnestly  sought 
mercy,  refusing  to  leave  the  place  till  they  obtained  a bless- 
ing. They  continued  together  all  night,  and  before  morn- 
ing many  found  peace  in  believing.  On  the  following 
Sabbath  similar  results  followed  the  ordinary  services  at 
another  village.  The  work  spread  from  Vavau  to  Haabai, 
and  from  there  “to  Tonga,  and  for  weeks  together  nothing 
was  to  be  heard  but  cries  to  God  for  mercy,  or  songs  of 
praise  from  those  who  had  found  salvation.  So  extensive 
was  this  work  of  grace,  that  it  is  estimated  that  more  than 
two  thousand  conversions  took  place  in  the  Haabai  Islands 
alone  in  the  course  of  two  or  three  weeks,  and  they  gave 
evidence  of  the  reality  of  the  change  they  had  experienced 
by  their  upright  walk  and  conversation.’’ 

At  the  present  time  (1873),  there  are,  according  to  the 
latest  official  reports,  in  the  Friendly  Islands  and  Samoa 
District,  23  missionaries,  177  chapels,  8,262  Church-mem- 
bers, and  7,201  scholars  receiving  instruction  in  the  mis- 
sion schools. 


38 


GO  ou  send: 


JOEL  BULU’s  EXPERIENCE. 

Mere  numbers  do  not  signify;  being  baptized  is  not 
enough;  and  is,  if  trusted  in,  worse  than  nothing.  The 
question  is:  Are  these  heathen  professors  “j'ustified  by 
faith,”  and  “born  of  the  Spirit  of  God”?  We  say  not 
that  all  the  heathen  who  have  joined  the  Church  have  been 
pardoned  and  converted,  for  in  all  lands  there  are  a few 
hypocrites  and  many  formalists;  but  this  we  do  assert: 
the  missionaries,  as  a class,  have  been  more  careful  about 
receiving  unconverted  persons  into  the  Church  than  have 
the  pastors,  as  a class,  at  home.  The  missionaries  have  seen 
clearly  that  a host  of  unregenerate  people  in  the  Church  will 
enfeeble  experience,  spoil  doctrine,  and  destroy  discipline. 
We  must  find  space  for  one  experience,  above  the  average 
at  home,  and  in  mission  lands  it  may  be,  but  it  shows  what 
the  gospel  can  do  for  the  most  degenerate  of  our  race. 
Brother  Bulu  “tells  his  experience,”  and  this  is  the  trans- 
lation by  one  of  the  Wesleyan  missionaries: 

“I  was  born  in  Vavau  in  the  heathen  days,  nor  was  it 
till  I was  a big  lad  that  the  lotu  [their  word  for  the  “new 
religion”]  came  to  our  land.  When  I heard  the  report  of 
it  I was  full  of  anger,  and  my  soul  burned  with  hatred  against 
it.  ‘And  shall  our  gods  be  forsaken?’  I cried,  in  great  wrath. 
‘As  for  me,  I will  never  forsake  them.’  One  day  I heard  a 
man  talking  of  the  lotu,  who  said  it  promised  a land  of  the 
dead  different  from  the  bulotu  of  which  our  fathers  spoke, 
even  a home  in  the  sky  for  the  good,  where  evil  men  were 
cast  into  a dreadful  place,  wherein  there  burned  a fire 
which  none  could  quench.  On  that  very  night  I went  forth 
with  the  lads  of  the  town — it  was  a fine  night — and  looking 
up  to  the  heavens  where  the  stars  were  shining,  this  thought 
suddenly  smote  me:  ‘O  the  beautiful  land  ! If  the  words 

be  true  which  were  told  us  to-day,  then  are  these  lotu  people 
happy  indeed;’  and  my  soul  longed  with  a great  longing  to 


A PLEA  FOR  MISSIONS. 


39 


reach  that  beautiful  land.  I could  not  rest,  so  I went  to 
another  town,  where  dwelt  a Christian  chief,  to  tell  him  I 
wished  to  lotu.  ‘Good  is  your  coming,’  cried  the  chief, 
and  great  was  his  joy.  ‘But  why  do  you  want  to  lotu?’ 
‘I  have  heard,’  was  my  reply,  ‘of  the  good  land  whither 
you  go  after  death;  therefore  do  I wish  to  lotu,  that  I also 
may  be  a dweller  in  the  sky.’  So  they  prayed  over  me,  and 
thus  it  was  that  I turned  to  Christianity;  but  of  its  meaning 
I knew  nothing.  Then  came  Mr.  Thomas  to  Vavau,  and, 
standing  under  a tree  in  the  public  square,  he  preached  to 
us  from  the  parable  of  the  tares  among  the  wheat.  It  was 
this  sermon  that  pierced  my  soul ; for  I had  thought  that  I 
was  one  of  the  wheat,  but  now  I found  I was  among  the 
tares.  As  I heard  I wept  and  trembled,  for  I thought,  ‘I 
shall  never  see  the  good  land.’  When  the  sermon  was  over, 
and  the  people  rose  to  go,  I sat  in  my  place  quaking  for 
fear,  and  weeping  in  great  anguish,  for  all  the  strength  had 
gone  out  of  my  body.  ‘What  is  the  matter  with  you?’ 
they  asked.  I said,  ‘Pray  for  me,  pray  for  me,  I beseech 
you.’  So  they  knelt  down  and  prayed  for  me,  first  one 
and  then  another,  till  they  were  tired  ; but  I found  no  com- 
fort. So  I rose,  and,  going  into  an  empty  out-house,  I 
knelt  down  there  by  myself,  weeping  and  praying  before 
the  Lord,  for  now  I felt  that  I was  a sinner;  the  wrath 
of  God  lay  heavy  upon  my  soul,  and  I hated  myself  because 
of  my  evil  ways.  ‘ O what  is  that  repentance  whereof  the 
preacher  told  us?’  I cried,  ‘Lord,  let  me  find  it,  that  I 
may  live!  ’ for  so  dark  was  my  mind  that  I did  not  know 
that  this  sorrow  and  fear  of  mine  were  marks  of  repentance. 
Thus  I continued  a long  while  seeking  the  Lord  in  prayer 
with  many  tears. 

“At  last  there  came  a day,  in  1834,  when  the  missiona- 
ries (of  whom  Mr.  Turner  was  one)  assembled  us  together 
to  hold  a love-feast ; and  when  we  had  sung  a hymn  and 


40 


GO  OR  send: 


prayed,  then  Mr.  Turner  stood  up  to  declare  the  Avork  of 
God  in  his  soul.  My  heart  burned  Avithin  me  as  I listened 
to  his  Avords;  for  in  speaking  of  himself,  he  told  all  I had 
felt,  and  I said  to  myself:  ‘We  are  like  two  canoes  sailing 
boAv  and  boAV,  neither  being  SAvifter  nor  slower  than  the 
other.’  Thus  it  Avas  Avith  me  when  he  told  of  his  repent- 
ance; but  Avhen  he  Avent  on  to  speak  of  his  faith  in  Christ, 
the  forgiA'eness  of  his  sins,  and  the  peace  and  joy  which  he 
had  in  believing,  then  said  I : ‘ My  mast  is  broken,  my  sail 
is  blown  aAvay;  he  is  gone  clear  out  of  my  sight,  and  I am 
left  here  drifting  helplessly  over  the  Avaves.’  But  Avhile  I 
listened  eargerly  to  his  Avords,  telling  of  the  love  of  Christ 
to  him,  my  eyes  Avere  opened:  I saAV  the  Avay,  and  I,  even 
I,  also  believed  and  lived.  I was  like  a man  fleeing  for  his 
life  from  an  enemy  behind  him,  and  groping  along  the  wall 
of  a house  in  the  dark  to  find  the  door  that  he  may  enter 
n and  escape,  Avhen,  lo ! a door  is  suddenly  opened  before 
his  face,  and  straightAvay,  with  one  bound,  he  leaps  within. 
Thus  it  Avas  to  me  as  I listened  to  the  Avords  of  Mr.  Turner; 
my  heart  Avas  full  of  joy  and  love,  and  the  tears  streamed 
down  my  cheeks.  Often  had  I Avept  before;  but  not  like 
my  former  Aveeping  Avere  the  tears  which  I noAv  shed. 
Then  I wept  out  of  sorroAv  and  fear,  but  noAv  for  very  joy 
and  gladness,  and  because  my  heart  Avas  full  of  love  to 
Him  Avho  had  loved  me  and  given  Himself  for  me;  and 
Mr.  Turner,  seeing  the  tears  raining  heavily  doAvn  from  my 
eyes,  called  upon  me  to  speak.  ‘Stand  up,  Joel,’  said  he, 
‘and  tell  us  hoAV  it  is  Avith  you.’  So  I stood  up;  but  it 
seemed  to  me  as  if  my  soul  Avere  parted  from  my  body, 
and  I remember  nothing  more  until  I found  myself  lying 
on  the  mat,  and  the  missionaries  Aveeping  over  me,  and 
saying,  ‘What  is  this?’  ‘I  live,’  said  I,  ‘I  live.  Let  me 
rise,  that  I may  declare  the  mercies  of  God.’  And  even 
while  I spoke  there  arose  a great  city  in  our  midst,  and  a 


A PLEA  FOR  MISSIONS. 


41 


burst  of  weeping,  for  the  hearts  of  all  were  strangely 
moved.  O what  a day  was  that ! Never  can  I forget  it. 
The  prayers,  the  praises,  and  the  tears  of  joy!” 

This  Joel  Bulu  became  a preacher,  and  for  nearly  forty 
years  did  faithful  work  among  his  own  people  and  as  a mis- 
sionary to  Fiji.  In  1848  he  was  stationed  at  Ono,  the 
principal  of ^ little  group  of  islands  on  the  southerly  ex- 
tremity of  Fiji.  In  December  of  that  year  he  wrote  a let- 
ter to  the  missionaries,  which  shows  his  spirit  and  methods, 
and  is  not  without  its  lessons  for  pastors  at  home.  We  find 
the  extract  we  quote  in  Calvert’s  “Fiji  and  Fijians.”  He 
writes:  “The  work  of  God  prospers  at  Ono.  Some  of 
the  young  men  ” — who  had  been  unfaithful — “ repent,  and 
have  begun  to  meet  in  class.  The  people  are  in  earnest.  I 
also  endeavor  to  be  in  earnest.  I visit  the  towns,  and  from 
house  to  house.  I question  them,’ instruct  them,  and  pray 
with  them,  and  we  are  at  rest  in  the  love  of  God.  We 
have  had  a profitable  infant-school  feast.  I endeavor  to 
teach  the  youths  the  meaning  of  the  Holy  Scriptures.  At 
one  love-feast  at  Ndoi  the  Holy  Spirit  wrought  mightily  in 
our  hearts,  and  many  stated  their  enjoyment  of  the  Divine 
favor.  In  one  week  I go  to  Waini,  and  meet  the  classes; 
one  week  to  Ndoi,  and  meet  the  classes ; one  week  to  Ma- 
tokana;  and  one  week  at  Ono  Levu,  and  this  I shall  attend 
to  quarterly.” 

5.  The  Fiji  Islands. — One  of  the  most  interesting  fea- 
tures of  the  revival  in  Tonga  was  that  it  gave  birth  to  the 
Mission  to  the  Fiji  Islands.  It  is  impossible  to  exaggerate 
the  moral  degradation  of  the  Fijians  when  the  missionaries 
first  landed  on  their  coasts.  Mr.  James  Calvert,  the  best 
historian  of  Fiji,  says: 

“The  worst  deformities,  the  foulest  stains,  disfiguring 
and  blackening  all  the  rest,  are  the  very  parts  of  Fijian 
nature,  which,  while  the  most  strongly  characteristic,  are 


42 


GO  OR  SEND: 


such  as  may  be  hurriedly  mentioned,  dimly  hinted  at,  or 
passed  by  altogether  in  silence.  Tlie  truth  is  just  this — 
that,  within  the  many  shores  of  this  secluded  group,  every 
evil  passion  had  grown  up  unchecked,  and  run  riot  in  un- 
heard-of abominations.  Sinking  lower  and  lower  in  moral 
degradation,  the  people  had  never  fallen  physically  or  in- 
tellectually to  the  level  of  certain  stunted  and  brutalized 
races,  fast  falling,  through  mere  exhaustion,  from  the  mass 
of  humanity.  Constitutional  vigor  and  mental  force  aided 
and  fostered  the  development  of  every  crime,  until  crime 
became  inwrought  into  the  very  souls  of  the  people,  pol- 
luted every  heart,  gave  form  to  every  social  and  political 
institution,  and  turned  religious  worship  into  orgies  of  sur- 
passing horror.  The  savage  of  Fiji  broke  beyond  the  com- 
mon limits  of  rapine  and  bloodshed,  and,  violating  the  ele- 
mentary instincts  of  humanity,  stood  unrivaled  as  a dis- 
grace to  mankind That  innate  depravity, 

which  he  shares  in  common  with  other  men,  has  in  his 
case  been  fostered  into  peculiar  brutality  by  the  character 
of  his  religion  and  all  his  early  training  and  associa- 
tions. Shedding  of  blood  is  to  him  no  crime,  but  a 
glory.” 

Whatever  may  be  said  of  idolaters,  polygamists,  canni- 
bals, may  be  said  of  the  Fijians.  When  the  missionaries 
first  landed  in  Lakemba,  on  the  12th  of  October,  1835, 
they  found  a population  of  about  200,000.  Their  way  was 
somewhat  prepared  by  the  occasional  visit  of  Tongan  sailors 
for  purposes  of  trade.  Of  these  visits  Mr.  Calvert  says: 
“After  awhile  there  were  found  among  the  Tongan  sailors 
who  visited  Fiji,  some  who  had  been  converted  to  Christi- 
anity at  home;  and  these,  on  arriving  in  the  strange  land, 
zealously  set  about  making  known  what  they  themselves 
knew  of  the  gospel  to  their  own  relatives” — some  people 
from  Tonga  having  emigrated  to  Lakemba — “and  then  to 


A PLEA  FOR  MISSIONS. 


43 


the  Fijians.  Thus  .was  the  Christian  religion  first  intro- 
duced into  the  group.” 

The  product  of  Christian  missions  is  tlrus  seen  to  be  a 
fruit  “whose  seed  is  in  itself.”  Joel  Bulu,  as  a missionary, 
was  a normal  development — the  missionary  wave  that  set  in 
from  Tonga  to  Lakemba,  moved  by  the  same  impulse  that 
carried  Paul  into  Macedonia. 

At  the  present  time  we  have  as  regular  official  statistics — 
not  in  round  numbers,  as  guessed  at — from  the  Wesleyan 
Conference  in  Fiji  as  from  any  other  Methodist  Church  in 
the  world.  The  latest  report  says:  “ There  are  now  con- 
nected with  the  numerous  Wesleyan  stations  in  Fiji  22,797 
Church-members,  and  104,223  attendants  on  public  wor- 
ship, many  of  whom  were  once  cannibals.  The  Sabbath  is 
sacredly  regarded,  family  worship  regularly  conducted,  and 
schools  established  in  992  Christian  towns,  in  which  47,240 
scholars  are  brought  under  religious  instruction. 

As  illustrating  the  vigor  of  the  new  life  the  gospel  has 
brought  to  Fiji — not  only  building  churches,  but  substitut- 
ing cannibalism  by  Christian  civilization — take  the  follow- 
ing instance:  On  the  nth  of  March,  1856,  a strong  Mbau 
chief,  after  fair  and  regular  trial,  was  publicly  executed  for 
the  murder  of  his  wife,  a thing  of  constant  occurrence  twenty 
years  before,  and  that  Government  did  not  pretend  to  pun- 
ish. They  have  not  yet  invented  “emotional  insanity”  as 
a plea  for  the  acquittal  of  murderers.  May  the  Fijians  be 
spared  the  sentimentalism  of  a weak  humanitarianism  that 

a From  whicli  we  infer  that  Fiji  is  not  yet  plagued  with  a system  of 
public  education  so  very  secular"  that  her  children  cannot  be  “ brought 
under  religious  instruction.”  In  these  schools  the  Bible  is  recognized — 
as  it  ought  to  be — as  the  best  of  all  educators.  At  Kandavu  they  have 
a training-school  for  young  native  preachers,  called  Richmond  Hill 
Theological  Institute,  at  which,  among  other  useful  and  necessary 
things,  they  teach  the  young  theologues  hmu  to  sing!  A hint  to  the 
managers  of  the  “ Vanderbilt,”  and  other  such  institutions. 


44 


GO  OR  send: 


assumes  to  be  wiser  than  God,  and  multiplies  murders  by 
ceasing  to  punish  them ! 

And  this  great  change  in  thirty-eight  years!  The  old 
King  understood  it  who  said:  ''The  lotu  snakes  all  our 

land  to  move  1 ’ ’ 

“But  the  time  would  fail  to  tell”  about  mission-work  in 
all  the  heathen  countries  that  the  modern  Church  has  under- 
taken to  evangelize.  The  literature  of  the  subject  is  very 
extensive,  the  history  of  missions  being  preserved  in  many 
hundreds  of  volumes.  But  whether  we  turn  to  Ceylon, 
India,  Africa,  Greenland,  Turkey,  or  to  many  other  lands 
where  the  Church  has  unfurled  her  banner  of  peace,  we 
shall  see  manifested  the  power  of  the  gospel  to  overcome 
the  most  obdurate  unbelief  and  the  most  debasing  idolatry. 
We  have  only  given  a few  specimens ; not  that  all  mission- 
work  has  been  so  strikingly  successful,  but  because  in  these 
islands  the  trial  has  been  longest,  fairest,  and  in  the  face  of 
the  greatest  odds.  If  so  much  has  been  done  in  the  Sand- 
wich Islands,  in  Madagascar,  in  Tahiti,  in  Tonga,  in  Fiji, 
the  work  of  God  can  be  done  anywhere. 

To  show  results  comparatively  as  great  upon  vast  masses 
of  men  as  are  found  in  India  and  China,  will  require  more 
time.  Indeed,  the  experiment  has  never  been  fairly  begun 
in  these  countries.  But  even  here  the  “first-fruits  ” are  the 
“earnest  of  an  abundant  harvest.”  The  results  of  mission- 
work  in  Burmah,  where  that  very  apostolic  man,  Adoniram 
Judson,  planted  the  Church,  and  in  that  part  of  India  where 
Carey,  Marshman,  and  Ward  established  at  Serampore  a 
center  of  Christian  influence  that  shall  outlive  the  ages,  will 
compare  favorably  with  any  work  that  has  been  done  for 
Jesus  Christ  by  the  apostles  or  any  of  their  successors  since 
the  Pentecost. 

6.  Comparative  Statistics. — There  are  some  comparative 
statistics  of  the  results  and  progress  of  Christian  missions 


A PLEA  FOR  MISSIONS. 


45 


in  India  that  merit  careful  attention,  a These  facts  show 
how  normal  and  vigorous  the  growth  of  the  Christian 
Church  in  heathen  lands;  showing,  also,  that  as  we  get  our 
civilization  from  Jesus  Christ,  the  gospel  shall  one  day- 
make  the  heathen  world  the  heirs  of  a like  inheritance. 

In  1862,  the  native  pastors  in  India,  Ceylon,  and  Bur- 
mah,  numbered  183;  in  1872,  406.  In  1862,  the  commu- 
nicants in  these  countries  numbered  49,688;  in  1872,  70,- 
857.  To  see  how  thoroughly  and  broadly  the  gospel  is 
being  established,  consider  how  many  heathen  youth  have 
been  and  are  being  educated  by  the  missionaries  and  their 
helpers.  How  rapidly  this  work  has  grown  in  ten  years! 
In  Burmah,  Ceylon,  and  India,  in  1862,  there  were  in  the 
Christian  schools,  scholars  of  both  sexes,  96,574;  in  1872, 
1371326.  The  Christian  school,  in  all  mission  lands,  grows 
up  with  the  Church — the  missionaries  seeming  to  know  in- 
tuitively that  education  is  a normal  function  of  the  Church. 

These  figures  are  not  beyond  the  average  of  all  the  mis- 
sion-work in  the  world. 

The  venerable  Bishop  of  Calcutta,  in  a recent  sermon 
before  the  Church  Missionary  Society,  expressed  himself 
strongly  because  his  faith  is  strong.  “If,”  said  the  bishop, 
“the  succeeding  ten  years  should  be  blessed  at  the  same 
ratio  as  the  last  ten,  half  a million  of  souls  would  be  brought 
under  Christian  instruction ; and  at  the  end  of  forty  years 
more  the  whole  population  of  Hindoostan  would  be  the 
Lord’s.” 

Did  the  whole  Church  of  God  have  full  faith  in  the  power 
of  the  gospel;  did  she  see  her  opportunities;  did  she  un- 
derstand why  Providence  has  made  the  Christian  nations 
foremost  in  intelligence,  in  enterprise,  in  wealth,  in  com- 
merce, in  the  arts  and  sciences,  and  in  all  those  elements 


a For  fuller  information,  see  Tables  at  the  end  of  this  essay. 


46 


GO  OK  send: 


of  power  by  which  great  results  may  be  achieved;  did  the 
Church  know  all  these  things,  and,  believing  with  all  her  » 
heart,  throw  herself  upon  the  hoary  idolatries  of  Asia  with 
an  energy  proportioned  to  her  work  in  some  of  the  islands 
of  the  Pacific,  the  bishop’s  prophecy  would  become  a re- 
ality. 

7.  The  Bible  a7id  Missions. — The  grandest  result  of  the 
modern  missionary  movement  is  this:  It  has  translated, 
printed,  and  circulated  the  Scriptures  in  two  hundred  and 
seventy-four  of  the  dialects  of  our  race.  “Home  and  For- 
eign Protestantism,”  says  Dr.  Butler,  in  “The  Land  of  the 
Veda,”  “ has  given  131,392,339  copies  of  the  Book  of  God 
to  our  fellow-men  during  the  last  seventy  years.”  And 
this  statement  was  made  up  from  the  reports  of  1871. 
Every  year  adds  millions  to  the  list.  Read  the  list  below, 
and  wonder,  and  praise,  and  help  ! a 


a Languages  and  dialects,  two  hundred  and  seventy-four  in  number, 
in  which  the  Holy  Scriptures,  in  whole  or  in  part,  have  been  translated, 
printed,  and  distributed,  directly  or  indirectly,  by  these  Bible  Societies: 
Europe. — British  Isles — in  the  English,  Welsh,  Gaelic,  Irish,  and 
Manks  languages.  France — in  French,  Breton,  or  Aimorican,  and 
French  Basque.  Spain  and  Portugal — in  Spanish,  Catalan,  Spanish 
Basque,  Judaeo-Spanish,  Gitano,  and  Portuguese.  Northern  Europe — • 
in  Icelandic,  Swedish,  Lapponese,  Finnish,  Norwegian,  and  Danish. 
Central  Eitrope — in  Dutch,  Flemish,  German,  Judseo-German,  Lithu- 
anian, Polish,  Judaeo-Polish,  Wendish  Upper,  Wendish  Lower,  Bohe- 
mian, Hungarian,  Wendish,  and  Slovenian.  Italy,  Switzerland,  etc. — 
in  Italian,  Latin,  Romanese,  Romanese  Lower,  Piedmontese,  Vaudois. 
Greece,  Turkey,  etc. — in  Greek  Ancient,  Greek  Modem,  Gheg,  Tosk, 
Turkish,  Graeco-Turkish,  Armeno-Turkish,  Rouman,  Servian,  and  Bul- 
garian. Russian  Empire — in  Slavonic,  Modem  Russ,  Dorpat  Eslho- 
nian,  Reval  Esthonian,  Lettish,  Karelian,  Zirian,  Samogitian,  Calmuc, 
Morduin  or  Mordvinian,  Tscheremissian,  Tschuwaschian,  Orenburgh 
Tartar,  Karass,  and  Crimean  Tartar. 

Asia. — Georgia,  etc. — in  Ossitinian,  Georgian,  Armenian  Ancient, 
Armenian  Mod*rn,  Ararat- Armenian,  Trans-Caucasian  Tartar,  and 


A PLEA  FOR  MISSIONS. 


47 


Nearly  all  these  translations  have  been  made  by  mission- 
aries in  the  field,  engaged  in  their  regular  mission-work  of 
preaching  and  teaching.  From  the  mission-press  at  Seram- 
pore  alone  were  issued  before  the  death  of  Dr.  Carey,  in 
1833,  besides  millions  of  pages  of  Christian  tracts,  213,000 
copies  of  the  Scriptures  in  forty  different  dialects.  This 
immense  work  of  translating,  printing,  and  circulating  was 
done  by  Carey,  Marshman,  and  Ward.  Morrison  gave  the 


Kurdish.  Syria,  etc. — in  Hebrew,  Arabic,  Syriac,  Carshun,  and  Syro- 
Chaldaic.  Persia,  etc. — in  Persic,  Pushtoo  or  Affghan,  and  Belochee. 
India — in  Sanskrit  and  Hindoostanee.  Bengal  Presidency — in  Ben- 
gali, Santali,  Maghudha,  Uriya  or  Orissa,  Hindui  and  its  dialects,  the 
Bughelcundi,  Bnig  or  Brij-bhasa,  Canoj,  Kousulu,  Harroti,  Oojein, 
Oodeypoora,  Mar\var,  Juyapoora,  Bikaneera,  Buttaneer,  Sindhi,  Guru- 
mukhi,  Moultan,  Punjabi,  Dogura,  Cashmerian ; Gorkka  dialects — - 
Nepalese,  Palpa,  Kumaon,  and  Gurwhal.  Madras  Presidency — in  Tel- 
inga,  Canarese  or  Karnata,  Tamil,  Dakhani,  and  Malayalim.  Bombay 
Presidency — in  Kunkuna,  Mahratta,  Gujarati,  Parsi-Gujarati,  Cutchi  or 
Catchi.  Ceylon — in  Pali,  Singhalese  and  Indo-Portuguese.  Indo-Chinese 
— in  Assamese,  Munipoora,  Tibetan,  Khassi,  Burmese,  Bghai-Karen, 
Sgau-Karen,  Pwo-Karen,  and  Siamese  or  Thay.  China  and  Japan — in 
Chinese,  Mandarin,  Ningpo,  Canton,  Hakka,  Manchoo,  Buriat,  South- 
ern Mongolian,  Japanese,  and  Loochooan.  Malaysia — in  Malay, 
Low  Malay,  Javanese,  Sundanese,  and  Dajak. 

Islands  of  the  Pacific. — Malagasy,  Hawaiian,  Narrinyeri,  Maori, 
New  Caledonian,  Nengonese,  Lifu,  Aneitj’um,  laian,  Eromangan,  Fate, 
Fijian,  Rotuman,  Tongan,  Nine,  Samoan,  Rarotongan,  Tahitian,  Ku- 
saien.  Ebon,  Gilbert’s  Island,  and  Marquesan. 

Africa. — East  Africa — in  Coptic,  Ethiopic,  Amharic,  Tigre,  Galla, 
Kanika,  and  Swahili.  West  Africa — in  Berber,  Mandingo,  Temne, 
Mende,  Bullom,  Grebo,  Ga,  Tyi,  Yoruba,  Haussa,  Ibo,  Nupe,  Mpongwe, 
and  Dualla.  South  Africa — in  Benga,  Namacqua,  Sechuana,  Sesuto, 
Zulu,  and  Kafir. 

America. — Greenlandish,  Esquimaux,  Mohawk,  Mic-Mac,  Maliseet, 
Seneca,  Arrawack,  Creek,  Cree,  Tinne,  Ojibwa,  Creolese,  Delaware, 
Choctaw,  Dakota,  Mayan,  Mexican,  Negro  dialect  of  Surinam  and 
Aimara. — [Compiled  by  Rev.  Dr.  Butler,  in  “The  Land  of  the  Veda.’’] 


48 


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Bible  to  China.  The  Bible  is  printed  and  circulated  in 
nearly  three  hundred  heathen  tongues.  Missionaries  did 
it ! At  its  anniversary  in  1873,  India  Bible  Society 

made  this  sublime  resolution:  “To  put  a copy  of  God’s 
word  in  every  house  in  India.”  And,  vast  as  the  under- 
taking is,  the  missionaries  will  do  it.  The  schemes  of 
Cesar,  and  Alexander,  and  Napoleon,  are  baubles  to  this. 
Some  day  God’s  word  will  be  offered  to  every  house  in  the 
world.  What  a privilege  to  help!  Who  shall  estimate 
such  results  of  the  missionary  movement?  Who  can  esti- 
mate the  harvest  from  such  sowings?  In  one  year  90,000 
copies  of  the  Scriptures  were  circulated  in  India.  The  re- 
lation of  such  facts  to  the  temporal  and  eternal  future  of 
millions  upon  millions  of  souls,  mere  numbers  cannot  ex- 
press. As  well  try  to  weigh  the  sunbeams.  But  suppose 
the  sun  gone  from  his  place  in  the  heavens! 

What  has  the  Bible  done  for  us?  It  can  do  as  much  for  all 
nations  that  receive  it.  Can  there  be  a soul  so  dead  that  this 
one  fact  of  God’s  word  circulated  round  the  world  does  not 
thrill  it  with  a new  and  larger  hope  of  our  race?  In  the  pres- 
ence of  this  one  fact,  who  will  ask  what  it  costs  of  gold  and 
silver,  of  tears  and  blood  of  martyrs?  The  world’s  gold  would 
be  a cheap  price  to  pspy  for  God’s  word  given  to  the  world,  a 

8.  Literature  and  Missions. — We  do  not  enter  this  field — 
we  only  point  it  out.  On  the  31st  of  May,  1818,  the  Sam- 
achar  Durpun,  or  Mirror  of  News,  the  first  newspaper 
ever  published  in  an  Eastern  language,  was  issued  from  the 
Serampore  press.  In  many  cases  missionaries  have  con- 
structed languages  out  of  barbarous  dialects,  inventing 
alphabets  that  they  might  be  written.  Many  nations  have 
been  as  destitute  of  literature  as  of  religion  till  the  mission- 

a And  yet  so  late  in  the  nineteenth  century  as  October  4th,  1873,  we 
read  an  article,  by  a minister,  calculating  how  many  dollars  each  one 
of  our  Chinese  converts  costs  us! 


A PLEA  FOR  MISSIONS. 


49 


aries  gave  it  to  them.  And  through  the  mass  of  such  litera- 
ture as  China  and  India  and  other  semi-civilized  nations 
have  made  for  themselves,  Christian  literature,  introduced 
by  the  missionaries,  is  working  its  silent  but  irresistible 
way.  Some  day  this  leaven  of  truth  will  “leaven  the  whole 
lump.”  The  bare  catalogue  of  publications  issued  by  the 
presses  connected  with  the  missions  of  the  American  Board 
to  the  Oriental  Churches  fills  up  fifteen  pages  as  large  as 
this.  A very  meager  account  of  the  whole  matter  would 
fill  up  many  such  essays. 

In  this  connection  it  may  be  well  to  state  that  the  Rev. 
Young  J.  Allen,  one  of  our  missionaries  in  China,  besides 
attending  to  his  ordinary  work,  is  translating  works  for 
the  Imperial  schools,  and  printing  and  circulating  papers, 
thus  doing  good  service  in  the  cause  both  of  civilization 
and  Christianity  in  that  vast  empire. 

9.  The  Gospel  in  Correcting  Abuses. — The  power  of  the 
missionary  work  in  correcting,  abuses  and  in  working  na- 
tional reforms  must  be  mentioned,  though  it  cannot  be  dis- 
cussed. What  the  gospel  did  in  England — rooting  out 
Druidism ; what  it  did  in  other  parts  of  Europe — driving 
away  all  manner  of  cruel  superstitions — it  has  already  done 
in  some  lands  totally  heathen  fifty  years  ago,  and  is  now 
doing,  very  surely,  however  slowly,  in  all  heathen  lands. 
Cannibalism,  widow  - burning,  infanticide,  and  kindred 
crimes,  disappear  like  mists  before  the  sun.  They  will  soon 
exist  only  as  ghastly  memories.  Take  one  instance  only — 
the  Suttee,  or  widow-burning.  For  twenty-five  hundred 
years  this  horrid  rite  of  idolatry  prevailed  in  India.  In 
the  year  1817,  in  the  Presidency  of  Madras  alone,  766 
widows  were  burned  upon  the  death  of  their  husbands. 
During  ten  years,  in  the  localities  where  English  magistrates 
took  note  of  suttees,  5,997  widows  were  burned.  During 
twenty-five  centuries  millions  may  have  thus  perished. 

3 


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From  the  beginning  of  their  work  in  India,  the  mission- 
aries used  their  utmost  influence  to  induce  the  government 
to  supress  the  suttee,  and  for  more  than  twenty  years  they 
had  to  contend  against  the  almost  undivided  opposition  of 
the  powerful  East  India  Company.  On  the  4th  of  Decem- 
ber, 1829,  Lord  William  Bentinck,  Governor-General  of 
British  India,  signed  the  decree  which  ended  this  horrible 
outrage.  The  whole  history  cannot  be  given  here,  but  it 
shows  beyond  dispute  what  is  so  well  said  in  “The  Land  of 
the  Veda 

“At  length  the  terrible  crime,  which  the  edicts  and  en- 
ergy of  such  emperors  as  Akbar  and  Aurungzebe  could  not 
restrain,  trembled  before  the  cross  of  Christ.  The  Protest- 
ant missionary  entered  India  and  stood  up  to  ‘plead  for  the 
widow.’  Before  the  blessed  Name  which  he  invoked,  the 
demon  of  suttee  feared  and  fled  from  British  India.  What 
Veda,  and  Shaster,  and  Menu,  and  Mohammedan  Emperor, 
and  European  Governor,  all  failed  to  prevent  or  exterminate, 
in  the  long  experience  of  twenty-five  centuries,  was  effected 
by  the  beneficent  religion  of  Him  who,  in  every  age  and 
every  land,  has  proved  himself  to  be  woman’s  greatest  and 
best  friend. ’’a 

10.  The  Reflex  Influence  of  the  Missionary  Movemeitt. — 


a Widow-burning  prevails  still  in  those  provinces  of  India  not  under 
the  direct  government  of  England.  Two  notable  cases  were  recorded 
while  I was  in  India — one  in  March,  1858,  in  the  city  of  Aurungabad, 
in  the  dominion  of  the  Nizam;  and  the  other  in  August,  1859,  at 
Koonghur.  But  the  flag  of  Britain  no  longer  waves  over  a suttee, 
and  the  governors  are  doing  what  they  can  to  induce  the  native 
princes  to  complete  its  suppression. — Dr.  Butler. 

“The  Life  and  Labors  of  Carey,  Marshman,  and  Ward,”  written  by 
John  Clark  Marshman,  and  published  by  Alexander  Strahan  & Co., 
London,  gives  a most  interesting  and  conclusive  account  of  the  rela- 
tion of  the  missionaries  to  the  great  reform  decreed  by  Lord  William 
Bentinck. 


A PLEA  FOR  MISSIONS. 


51 


What  vve  call,  for  distinction’s  sake,  the  Home  Mission,  is 
itself  one  of  the  most  unmistakable  results  of  the  modern 
missionary  movement.  The  Church  never  fully  understood 
the  Saviour’s  command  to  “preach  the  gospel  to  the  poor’’ 
around  her  till  her  compassion  took  in  the  poor  afar  off. 
The  people  who  drove  Fuller  to  the  lanes  of  London  to 
hide  his  tears  over  their  refusal  to  help  him  send  Carey  to 
India,  made  no  effort  to  evangelize  the  godless  thousands 
of  their  own  city.  Going  still  farther  back,  we  shall  find 
that  the  whole  missionary  movement  of  our  times — whether 
expending  its  energies  at  home  or  abroad — grew  out  of  that 
great  revival  of  experimental  religion  of  which  Wesley  and 
Whitefield  were  the  shining  centers,  and  that  has  changed 
the  whole  current  of  Christian  thought  and  feeling  for  the 
last  century  and  a half. 

It  is  very  difficult  to  estimate  the  fruits  of  missionary 
labor  in  what  we  call  the  Home  Field,  from  its  peculiar  re- 
lation to  what  is  not  missionary  ground  in  Christian  lands. 
Let  it  never  be  forgotten,  however,  that  home-evangeliza- 
tion is  itself  one  of  the  noblest  results  of  modern  missions. 
But  this  work  cannot  be  at  all  measured  by  statistics.  When 
a mission  is  developed  into  a self-sustaining  pastoral  charge, 
its  statistics  are  absorbed  in  the  general  reports.  But  no 
person,  at  all  informed,  needs  any  argument,  or  any  facts, 
to  convince  him  of  the  value  and  success  of  domestic  mis- 
sions. There  was  a time  when  the  world  was  a mission- 
field.  Wherever  the  Church  of  Christ  is  now  established, 
we  have  proof  of  the  success  of  missions. 

In  a peculiar  sense  has  the  Church  in  America  a mission- 
ary history.  It  was  planted  in  the  western  wilderness  by 
missionaries;  and  in  the  tide  of  emigration  toward  the  set- 
ting sun,  the  “saddle-bags”  of  the  itinerant  were  never  far 
behind  the  “ rifle ” of  the  hunter,  or  the  “ax”  of  the  settler. 

Just  here  it  would  be  unpardonable  not  to  point  to  the 


52 


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mission-work  done  by  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
South,  among  the  negroes  of  the  Southern  States,  prior  to 
the  late  unhappy  war. a At  the  close  of  i860,  there  were, 
in  the  communion  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
South,  207,766  negro  slaves;  of  whom  171,857  were  in 
“full  connection,”  and  35,909  “on  probation.”  Thoseof 
us  whose  privilege  it  was  to  labor  with  them,  know  how 
truly  pious  thousands  of  them  were.  There  are  few  brighter 
chapters  in  the  history  of  the  Church;  and  this  has  been 
no  lost  labor.  Much  of  it  still  abides,  and  whatever  prom- 
ise the  future  has  for  the  freedmen  of  the  South,  is  chiefly 
in  the  results  of  missionary  labor  among  them  before  the 
war. 

That  the  scenes  of  San  Domingo  and  Hayti  have  not 
been  repeated  in  many  sections  of  the  South  during  the 
last  fourteen  years  is,  under  the  blessing  of  God,  due,  most 
of  all,  to  the  deep  religious  influence  of  these  sometimes 
overlooked  and  unhonored  missionaries.  No  history  of  the 
war  between  the  States  will  be  true  or  just  that  omits  this 
very  important  and  instructive  fact.^ 

But  the  most  difficult  task  of  all  is,  to  estimate  the  result 
of  the  missionary  movement  upon  the  life  of  the  Church  it- 
self. It  has  enlarged  the  views,  quickened  the  zeal,  ener- 
gized the  faith,  and  deepened  the  love  of  the  Church.  It 
is  a fundamental  law  of  all  spiritual  life,  that  he  who  gives, 
receives.  “He  that  watereth,  shall  be  watered  also  him- 
self.” In  attempting  to  evangelize  the  world,  the  Church 
“grows  up  into  Christ,  her  living  Head.”  It  is  like  Christ 
to  do  such  a work,  and  the  Church  that  does  it  will  grow 
like  him.  A Church  that  simply  holds  its  own — acting 
always  on  the  defensive — can  never  understand  God  nor 

a We  do  not  forget  to  honor  other  Churches,  particularly  the  Baptists 
that  took  part  in  this  work.  But  the  Methodists  inaugurated  it,  and 
were  its  chief  workers.  ~ 


A PLEA  FOR  MISSIONS. 


63 


man.  The  missionary  spirit  helps  us  to  understand  the 
Bible  revelation  of  Godj  it  clarifies  our  theology;  it  en- 
ables us  to  grasp  the  great  plans  of  redeeming  love;  it 
brings  us  into  such  sympathy  with  Christ  that  we  see  and 
feel  the  universal  brotherhood  of  man.  It  teaches  the  sects 
to  love  one  another;  and  some  day,  in  once  heathen  lands, 
perhaps,  sectarian  bigotry  shall  meet  its  death  in  the  tri- 
umphs of  a common  Christianity.  Christ  is  the  “Sent” 
of  God,  and  Christianity  is  a missionary  spirit.  That  is 
the  most  Christian  Church  that  is  most  deeply  imbued  with 
it.  It  must  be  the  most  prosperous,  for  all  true  prosperity 
lies  in  the  fact  of  obedience.  It  is  conceivable  that  an  un- 
missionary Church  might  continue  to  exist  for  a long  time 
as  a human  institution,  but,  as  a Church,  it  dies.  But  in 
the  long  run,  its  very  name  shall  perish;  the  “places  that 
knew  it  shall  know  it  no  more;”  its  “candlestick  shall  be 
taken  out  of  his  place.”  And  this  is  well:  the  stronger 
in  wealth,  numbers,  and  mere  worldly  power  an  unmission- 
ary Church  becomes,  the  worse  for  the  world.  The  mis- 
sionary movement  has  saved  the  modern  Church  from 
Pharisaism — the  most  dreadful  of  spiritual  maladies;  a sort 
of  dry-rot,  disintegrating  the  whole  spiritual  body  from 
within,  leaving  a mere  shell — its  heart  dead  and  gone — in- 
stead of  a spirit  of  life  and  power. « 

Nor  should  we  overlook,  in  considering,  however  briefly 

a It  is  strange  to  coast  by  these  African  shores.  The  best  telescope 
in  the  world  shows  us  no  traces  of  the  African  churches  which  once 
bordered  the  whole  north  of  that  dark  continent.  Augustin’s  voice  has 
no  echo  at  Hippo  now,  and  the  cities  where  he  preached  are  gone — 
like  Chorazin  and  Bethsaida,  Thyatira  and  Laodicea.  The  sands  of 
the  desert  of  Mohammedanism  have  swept  over  that  green  strip  of 
Christendom.  Was  it — as  some  one  has  suggested — because  this  Af- 
rican Church  was  content  to  be  a narrow  strip  of  light  outside  the 
darkness,  instead  of  seeking  to  penetrate  it  ? — Mrs.  Charles.  Moham- 
medanism could  never  have  destroyed  a truly  missionary  Church. 


54 


ao  OR  send: 


and  imperfectly,  the  reflex  influence  of  the  missionary 
movement,  that  it  has  given  the  Church  and  the  world  new 
evidences  of  the  truth  of  the  gospel,  and  new  illustrations 
of  its  power.  We  do  not  read  simply  of  the  conflicts  and 
victories  of  the  first  apostles;  our  hearts  burn  within  us 
while  we  read  of  the  toils  and  triumphs  of  their  true  suc- 
cessors— the  missionaries  of  our  own  times.  We  do  not 
read  simply  of  Paul  at  Corinth  or  at  Ephesus;  we  read  of 
Carey  at  Serampore,  and  of  Judson  in  Burmah.  We  do 
not  read  simply  of  our  Lord’s  first  martyr,  St.  Stephen,  but 
of  many  martyrs,  in  Madagascar,  and  Tahiti,  and  in  every 
land  where  the  gospel  has  gone.  We  do  not  read  simply 
of  the  revivals  in  Jerusalem  and  Antioch ; we  read  of  re- 
vivals as  genuine  and  divine  in  Hawaii  and  Tonga.  We  do 
not  read  simply  a history  that  is  accomplished  ; we  take 
part  in  a like  history  that  is  being  made.  What  the  gospel 
did  in  the  times  of  the  apostles  in  Christianizing  heathen 
nations,  it  is  doing  now.  If  the  destructive  criticism  of 
modern  skeptics  refuses  to  receive  the  record  of  The  Acts 
of  the  Apostles,  let  them  go  to  Fiji  and  explain  how  a 
Christian  nation  was  born  out  of  abject  savageism  while 
they  were  inventing  objections  to  Christianity.  Could  they 
say  more  after  such  a visit,  while  retaining  their  unloving 
and  unbelieving  hearts,  than  did  the  Jews  at  Thessalonica: 
“These  that  have  turned  the  world  upside  down  have  come 
hither  also.” 

Summing  up  what  we  have  learned  by  the  studies  that 
preceded  the  writing  of  this  chapter,  we  hesitate  not  to  say, 
that  more  heathen  have  been  converted  during  the  last  fifty 
years  than  during  the  first  fifty  years  after  the  day  of  Pen- 
tecost. And  it  ought  to  be  so. 

The  “golden  days”  are  before  us.  The  Church  has  lost 
none  of  her  conquering  power,  for  she  has  all  the  gospel. 
She  has  all  but  the  miracles,  and  retains  the  power  they 


A PLEA  FOR  MISSIONS. 


55 


manifested  and  symbolized.  She  has  not  the  gift  of  tongues, 
but  she  has  what  is  better;  God’s  word  circulated  in  two 
hundred  and  seventy-four  languages — more  than  were  ever 
heard  in  Jerusalem. 

The  world  is  brought  close  together,  and  every  accom- 
plished success  of  Christianity  makes  the  next  easier.  The 
power  and  facilities  of  the  Church  are  multiplied.  Above 
all,  if  she  ask  for  it,  in  the  spirit  of  those  who  “waited  at 
Jerusalem’’  for  “the  Promise  of  the  Father,’’  she  shall  re- 
ceive and  retain  for  all  her  work,  and  for  all  her  trials,  the 
outpouring  and  the  abiding  presence  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 


£6 


GO  OR  sknd: 


CHAPTER  V. 

Christ  Jesus  “ Head  over  all  Things  to  the  Church.” 

IN  undertaking  any  great  enterprise  it  is  well  to  count 
the  cost.  But  the  Church  is  not  to  estimate  her  ability 
to  evangelize  the  world  after  the  manner  of  the  king  who 
“sitteth  down  first  and  consulteth  whether  he  be  able  with 
ten  thousand  to  meet  him  that  cometh  against  him  with 
twenty  thousand.”  If  the  Church  could  only  count  num- 
bers and  human  resources,  she  would  never  send  mission- 
aries to  the  heathen.  In  such  a view,  how  pitiful  the 
attitude  of  Carey,  Marshman,  and  Ward,  at  Serampore! 
These  three,  the  millions  of  India  before  them,  and  the 
whole  influence  of  the  East  India  Company  against  them  ! 
In  such  a view,  how  insane  was  Paul  preaching  in  Corinth 
■ — in  Rome ! But  Paul  was  not  alone,  and  no  man  who  has 
followed  his  example  has  been  alone.  Christ  Jesus  was 
with  Paul  in  Rome,  and  in  Serampore  with  his  faithful 
servants.  So  had  he  promised  : “ Lo,  I am  with  you  alway, 
even  unto  the  end  of  the  world.”  How  deep,  how  high  is 
this  Avord  ! And  it  is  true,  not  merely  was  true. 

When  our  Lord  was  about  to  ascend  to  heaven,  he  made 
his  entire  Church  a missionary  society,  saying,  “Go  ye  into 
all  the  world,  and  preach  the  gospel  to  every  creature.” 
He  knew  all  about  the  difficulty  of  the  work,  and  prefaced 
the  command  with  the  declaration:  “All  power  is  given 
unto  me  in  heaven  and  in  earth.”  “Go  ye,  therefore.”  That 
is  reason  enough.  He  closed  the  commission  by  pledging 


A PLEA  FOR  MISSIONS. 


57 


his  presence  with  all  the  powers  conferred  upon  him.  The 
Bible  doctrine  is:  “God  was  in  Christ,  reconciling  the 
world  unto  himself;  ’ ’ and  Christ  Jesus  governs  this,  and  all 
worlds,  in  the  interest  of  his  Church,  a 

St.  Paul  expounds  our  Lord’s  claim  of  universal  sover- 
eignty. Let  us  hear  him,  and  believe.  In  his  Epistle  to 
the  Ephesians  he  prays,  for  us  as  for  them  : “That  the  God 
of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  the  Father  of  glory,  may  give 
unto  you  the  spirit  of  wisdom  and  revelation  in  the  knowl- 
edge of  him  : the  eyes  of  your  understanding  being  enlight- 
ened; that  ye  may  know  what  is  the  hope  of  his  calling, 
and  what  the  riches  of  the  glory  of  his  inheritance  in  the 
saints,  and  what  the  exceeding  greatness  of  his  power  to 
us- ward  who  believe,  according  to  the  working  of  his  mighty 
power,  which  he  wrought  in  Christ  when  he  raised  him  from 
the  dead,  and  set  him  at  his  own  right  hand  in  heavenly 
places,  far  above  all  principality,  and  power,  and  might, 
and  dominion,  and  every  name  that  is  named,  not  only  in 
this  world,  but  also  in  that  which  is  to  come ; and  hath  put 
all  things  under  his  feet,  and  gave  him  to  be  head  over 

ALL  THINGS  TO  THE  ChURCH,  WHICH  IS  HIS  BODY,  THE  FULL- 
NESS OF  HIM  THAT  FILLETH  ALL  IN  ALL.” 

It  is  His  Church — his  body.  And  he  loves  the  Church 
as  well  as  he  did  the  day  he  died  for  her.  Her  conflicts, 
her  sorrows,  her  triumphs,  are  his.  He  is  no  mere  spec- 
tator of  her  toils : he  works  with  her,  stands  by  her,  re- 
joices with  her.  He  will  yet  crown  her  with  immortal 
honors. 

God  be  praised  ! He — our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ 
— has  “all  power  in  heaven  and  in  earth.’’  He  is  “Head 
over  all  things  to  the  Church.’’  Nothing  can  be  impossible 
or  unreasonable  that  he  commands.  Of  the  Acts  of  the 


a Providence  is  the  handmaid  of  grace. — Bishop  Wightman. 

3* 


58 


GO  OR  send: 


Apostles  Canon  Norris  has  rightl)^  said:  “Surely  one  great 
purpose  of  this  book  is  to  teach  us  thus  to  recognize  the 
personal  government  of  Christ  throughout  his  Church’s 
history.  Of  that  Church  history  of  eighteen  centuries, 
could  it  be  written  truly,  this  record  of  the  first  thirty  years 
would  be  seen  to  be  but  a specimen  page — the  first  of  many 
pages,  of  which  the  last  is  not  yet  written.  When  the  last 
page  comes  to  be  written,  then  shall  we  understand,  as 
clearly  as  the  writer  of  this  page  understood,  the  fulfillment 
of  Christ’s  promise,  ‘Lo,  I am  with  you  alway,  even  unto 
the  end  of  the  world.’  ’’ 

Christ’s  is  a personal  government,  not  delegated,  as  some 
blasphemously  teach,  to  vicars,  otherwise  called  popes, 
“lording  it  over  God’s  heritage.”  That  he  does  fulfill  his 
ancient  promise,  that  he  does  govern  all  things  in  the  inter- 
est of  his  Church,  the  history  of  modern  missions  gives 
gracious  proof  and  illustration.  We  only  lack  the  inspired 
historian  to  tell  the  story.  But  what  D’Aubigne  says  is 
true,  and  the  history  of  the  Church  makes  it  plain : “Jesus 
Christ  is  the  purpose  of  God  in  history."  Whoever  has  faith 
enough  to  recognize  the  guiding  and  helping  hand  of  Christ 
in  the  missionary  labors  of  the  apostles  will  surely  recognize 
it  in  the  missionary  labors  of  our  own  times.  He  prepared 
the  way  for  his  apostles ; he  prepares  the  way  for  his  mis- 
sionaries. We  are  as  sure  of  the  one  as  of  the  other.  Now — 
as  then — he  overrules  the  plans  of  his  friends,  and  makes 
the  wrath  of  his  enemies  to  praise  him.  But  it  cannot  be 
traced  here.  Love  and  faith  can  trace  it — a golden  thread 
running  through  all  the  history  of  the  world  since  he  as- 
cended to  heaven. 

Paul  and  Silas  were  minded  to  go  into  Asia,  preaching 
the  word,  “but  the  Spirit  suffered  them  not.”  “And  a 
vision  appeared  to  Paul  in  the  night : There  stood  a man  of 
Macedonia,  and  prayed  him,  saying,  Come  over  and  help 


A PLEA  FOR  MISSIONS. 


59 


US.”  Paul  only  desired  to  know  the  will  of  Christ,  and  he 
turned  from  Asia  to  Europe.  Would  God  that  we  were  as 
A^illing  to  know  and  to  follow  the  mind  of  Christ  as  was  St. 
Paul!  Then  we  could  understand  the  “visions  that  ap- 
pear” to  us;  then  we  would  hear  and  understand  theory 
of  the  typical  man  of  Macedonia  standing  now  by  the 
sleeping  Church;  then  we  “could  read  the  signs  of  our 
own  times.”  We  can  read  weather  signs,  because  we 
study  them.  Why  do  we  not  read  the  “signs  of  the 
times,”  seeing  the  “great  and  effectual  doors”  that  Christ 
opens  before  us?  “In  this  world,”  says  a German  prov- 
erb, “the  eye  sees  what  it  brings  capacity  for  seeing.” 
Things  enough  to  see,  if  there  be  an  eye.  We  can  both  see 
and  read  Christ’s  “signs”  to  us,  if  we  wish  to  do  so — if 
we  have  the  spirit  of  St.  Paul  when  he  heard  the  cry, 
“ Come  over  and  help  us.” 

What  means  the  disruption  of  Romish  institutions  in 
Mexico  accomplished  not  by  external  pressure,  but  by  a 
sort  of  self-acting,  internal  force?  It  is  an  earthquake  from 
within,  not  a crash  from  without.  Christ,  “head  over  all 
things  to  the  Church,”  has  given  the  people  expulsive 
power  enough  to  drive  out  the  false  teachers.  Can  we  not 
understand  that?  Then  we  would  not  understand  it  if  a 
man  from  Mexico  stood  by  us  in  the  night,  crying  out, 
“Come  over  and  help  us.” 

Kioto  is  the  sacred  capital  of  Japan.  A missionary  vis- 
ited this  “sacred”  city  during  the  “Kioto  Exhibition,” 
and  wrote  about  it  to  the  Missionary  Herald,  May  31,  1873. 
He  says:  “As  I saw  these  surging  millions  in  the  interior, 
and  as  I wandered  all  one  afternoon  among  the  ancient 
and  beautiful  Buddhist  temples  on  the  east  of  Kioto,  and 
found  the  paths  leading  to  them,  and  the  walks  about  them, 
grass-grown,  and  the  temples  deserted,  even  by  the  priests, 
so  that  we  could  wander  among  the  halls,  corridors,  and 


60 


GO  OR  SEND: 


rooms,  as  in  deserted  ruins,  I could  not  refrain  from  think- 
ing, and  wishing,  and  praying  for  the  men  ready  to  go  up 
and  possess  the  land.” 

The  priests  gone,  the  temples  deserted,  the  walks  grass- 
grown  ! What  means  this?  It  is  Christ  preparing  the  way, 
and  calling  his  Church  to  give  these  “surging  millions” 
the  ^‘word  of  life.”  Will  the  Church  obey?  What  mean 
the  great  revolutions  in  China,  in  India?  What  mean 
those  great  movements — by  future  historians  to  be  written 
epochal — among  the  nations,  whereby  almost  every  land  is 
now  thrown  open  to  the  gospel? 

What  if  Paul  had  refused  to  go  into  Macedonia?  What 
if  the  Church  of  to-day  refuses,  through  avarice  or  unbelief, 
to  follow  the  guiding  hand  of  Christ?  Some  CJjurches  do 
read  these  “signs,”  and  follow  on.  May  they  go  on  “con- 
quering and  to  conquer.”  Some  do  not.  The  Lord  an- 
swer for  them  St.  Paul’s  prayer  for  the  Ephesians:  “The 
eyes  of  their  understanding  being  enlightened,  .... 
they  may  know  what  is  the  exceeding  greatness  of  his 
power  to  us- ward  !” 

It  is  very  plain,  Christ  is  “head  over  all  things  to  the 
Church,”  but  his  Church  must  obey  him,  working  with 
him  and  for  him.  That  Church  that  does  not  must  give 
place  for  a better;  it  must  “go  to  its  own  place”  among 
dead  Churches  that  would  not  be  “led  by  the  Spirit.” 
Christ’s  work  must  go  on ; if  any  Church  that  he  calls  to 
do  a work  for  him  refuses,  he  will  raise  up  another  in  its 
stead.  He  has  done  this  very  often  in  the  past;  he  is 
doing  it  now;  he  will  do  it  to  the  end.  No  denomination 
is  necessary  to  Christ. 

Even  the  author  of  “Ecce  Homo”  saw  this.  Speaking 
of  the  missionary  or  aggressive  character  of  the  Church, 
he  says:  “Surely  this  article  of  Conversion  is  the  true  ar- 
ticulus  stantis  aut  cadentis  ecclesice. — ‘ The  article  of  a stand- 


A PLEA  FOR  MISSIONS. 


61 


ing  or  a falling  Church.’  When  the  power  of  reclaiming 
the  lost  dies  out  of  the  Church,  it  ceases  to  be  the  Church. 
It  may  remain  a useful  institution,  though  it  is  most  likely 
to  become  an  immoral  and  mischievous  one.  Where  the 
power  remains,  there,  whatever  else  maybe  wanting,  it  may 
still  be  said  that  ‘ the  tabernacle  of  God  is  with  men.’  ” 

Let  us  consider  it  well.  That  Church  which  depends  the 
least  on  mere  human  opinions  or  prejudices,  upon  the  pas- 
sions of  a generation,  upon  whatever  is  incidental  and  ac- 
cidental, but  that  depends  altogether  upon  the  “truth  as  it 
is  in  Jesus,”  relying  upon  his  power  and  love,  and  that 
most  perfectly  adjusts  all  its  arrangements  to  his  government 
— that  Church  lives  longest  and  prospers  most.  Church 
machinery  is  good,  if  it  only  be  rightly  adjusted,  not 
merely  in  the  relation  of  its  several  parts,  but  to  the  power 
that  moves  the  whole  spiritual  world,  the  power  of  God  in 
Christ  Jesus  manifesting  itself  in  the  salvation  of  men.« 
But  an  unmissionary  Church  is  not  so  related  to  Christ. 

Finally,  if  we  have  the  “Spirit  of  Christ,”  we  will  ask 
him  to  guide  us  in  all  our  plans;  we  will  recognize  his 
hand,  and  do  what,  and  go  where,  it  directs;  we  will  claim 
and  realize  his  presence ; we  cannot  fail. 

If  there  were  no  statistics  on  the  subject  of  missions,  it 
would  be  treason  to  doubt  the  value  of  missionary  labors 
while  Christ  has  “all  power  in  heaven  and  in  earth,”  and 
commands  us  to  “go  into  all  the  world  and  preach  the 
gospel  to  every  creature.” 


a We  have  known  one  splendid  piece  of  machinery  fail  for  want  of 
adjustment;  it  was  too  far  from  the  fower. 


62 


GO  OR  SEND* 


CHAPTER  VI. 


Conclusion. 


HE  Seed  Growing  Secretly. — Impatience  is  one  occa- 


sion of  unbelief.  We  are  like  children  who  play  at 
making  gardens — they  plant  the  seed  to-day,  and  to-mor- 
row dig  it  up  to  see  why  it  does  not  grow!  St.  James 
teaches  us  a better  lesson:  “Behold,  the  husbandman 

waiteth  for  the  precious  fruits  of  the  earth,  and  hath 
long  patience  for  it,  until  he  receives  the  early  and  the 
latter  rain.”  Wise  man  is  he  who  prepares  the  ground 
well,  sows  good  seed,  and  waits.  He  rises  up  and  goes 
forth ; he  lies  down  and  sleeps.  While  he  works  and 
waits,  watches  and  sleeps,  it  grows.  It  is  an  old  but  ever- 
new  promise  in  which  he  trusts:  “While  the  earth  remain- 
eth,  seed-time  and  harvest,  and  cold  and  heat,  and  summer 
and  winter,  and  day  and  night,  shall  not  cease.” 

If  some  sharp  eye,  looking  through  a long-range  telescope, 
finds  a spot  on  the  sun,  he  does  not  lose  heart  and  dig  up 
his  seed  1 

O that  the  “children  of  the  kingdom”  had  that  patience 
which  can  labor  and  wait,  with  faith  in  the  seed!  We  cry 
out  upon  some  little  mission-work  that  we  experiment  upon — 
“ playing  at  gardening” — “It  does  not  pay,”  and  with  child- 
ish tears  threaten  to  dig  it  up.  Great  is  the  forbearance  of 
our  God  that  he  does  not  dig  us  up.  Let  the  “good  seed” 
be  sown,  and  plentifully:  the  soil  will  bear  it,  but  a spoon- 
ful to  the  acre  will  not  bring  a harvest  in  one  year.  O 


A PLEA  FOR  MISSIOKS. 


63 


the  beggarly  parsimony  of  such  sowing ! After  twenty- 
eight  years  we  have  two  missionaries  in  China!  Thank 
God  1 they  have  patience,  because  they  have  faith.  And 
we  have  just  now  started  a mission  in  Mexico ! Our  do- 
mestic missions  are  not  forgotten : we  should  have  died  out 
for  lack  of  seed  long  ago  but  for  these. 

Missionary  history  is  full  of  encouragement  to  those  who 
can  wait,  having  faith  in  the  end  and  in  the  “Lord  of  the 
harvest.”  We  have  seen  how  the  seed  lived — growing 
secretly  but  surely — in  Madagascar  from  1828  to  1861, 
through  thirty-three  dark  years.  We  can  mention  here 
but  one  more  instance.  Fifty  years  ago  the  American  Board 
of  Foreign  Missions  started  the  sowers  through  Syria.  They 
scattered  the  word,  not  in  handfuls.  They  preached,  and 
prayed,  toiled  and  trusted,  and  nearly  despaired.  They 
saw  some  fruit,  but  most  of  the  first  missionaries  died  dis- 
appointed. But  they  have  “entered  into  their  reward,” 
although  “other  men  have  entered  into  their  labors.”  So 
it  is,  as  the  Master  hath  said,  “One  soweth,  and  another 
reapeth.”  It  is  well:  the  King  shall  not  lose  his  harvest. 
But  admire  the  result!  Early  in  1873  Jessup, 

long  a devoted  missionary  in  Syria,  wrote  a letter  touching 
the  work  in  that  country.  He  says:  “I  am  amazed  at  the 
evangelical  light  pervading  the  nominally  Christian  com- 
munities here.  The  Greek  Church  in  Beyrout  will  go  over 
en  masse  some  day  to  Protestantism,  judging  the  future  from 
the  past  ten  years.  A prominent  Greek  said  a few  days 
ago:  ‘You  Protestants  need  not  trouble  yourselves  about 

converting  Syria.  Our  children  are  all  going  to  be  Prot- 
estants, whether  you  like  it  or  not.  The  Bible  is  doing  the 
work.'  ” Have  we  grace  to  receive  the  exhortation  of  that 
man  of  God,  Adoniram  Judson  ? When  he  had  toiled  seven 
years  in  Burmah,  with  no  visible  fruit  of  his  labor,  he  wrote 
to  the  Board  in  America:  “Beg  the  Churches  to  have 


64 


GO  OR  send: 


patience.  If  a ship  were  here,  to  carry  me  to  any  part  of 
the  world,  I would  not  leave  my  field.  ' Tell  the  brethren 
success  is  as  sure  as  the  promise  of  a faithful  God  can  make  it.  ” 

Yes,  “success  is  sure,”  although  “ one soweth  and  another 
reapeth.”  How  strikingly  do  the  missionary  labors  of  that 
remarkable  and  little-understood  man,  the  first  bishop  of 
the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  Dr.  Thomas  Coke,  illus- 
trate this  principle!  He  seemed  to  live  before  his  time; 
his  great  soul  was  on  fire  with  missionary  zeal  when  the 
Church  had  not  yet  grasped  the  idea.  What  a picture  is 
that  of  Coke,  pleading  with  tears  before  the  Wesleyan  Con- 
ference to  be  permitted  to  undertake  the  evangelization  of 
India,  since  the  Conference  itself  was  appalled  by  the  mag- 
nitude of  the  undertaking  1 His  missionary  plans  embraced 
the  whole  world,  and  he  has  made  each  of  the  five  conti- 
nents, and  every  island  of  the  sea,  his  debtor.  He  was 
reckoned  avisionary  by  thousands  who  did  not  comprehend 
him.  His  life  seemed  to  them  a failure,  and  doubtless  he 
sometimes  had  sore  trial  of  his  faith.  But  Coke’s  life  was 
no  failure;  he  was  the  John  the  Baptist  of  the  great  Meth- 
odist missionary  organizations  of  our  times.  Every  land 
owes  him  a monument,  who,  in  slow-sailing  ships,  crossed 
the  ocean  eighteen  times  on  gospel  errands,  and  expended 
a noble  patrimony  to  advance  the  kingdom  of  the  Redeemer. 
Let  it  be  the  deep  sea,  washing  every  shore,  in  which  he 
sleeps ! 

The  Expense  of  Missions. — We  have  all  heard  of  the 
man  “wise  in  his  own  conceit,”  who  said  to  his  pastor, 
“Here  are  twenty-five  cents  for  the  heathen,  and  a dollar 
to  get  it  to  them.”  Poor  man  1 He  was  neither  wise  nor 
witty,  intelligent  nor  informed.  What  are  the  facts  ? Take 
the  work  of  the  American  Board  to  begin  with.  During 
the  first  seventeen  years  of  its  administration,  when  every- 
thing was  new  and  untried,  its  working  expenses  were  eleven 


A PLEA  FOR  MISSIONS. 


65 


and  a half  per  cent.;  for  the  next  seventeen  years,  four  and 
a half  per  cent.;  for  the  last  four,  four  per  cent. 

How  about  our  own  Board  ? The  total  working  expenses 
for  1872,  including  salary  and  traveling  expenses  of  Secre- 
tary, printing,  stationery,  postage-stamps,  and  all,  is  a 
little  less  than  four  per  cent.  And  this  with  a contribution 
from  654,159  ministers  and  members  of  $94,139  95  ! Let 
us  thoughtfully  consider  that  more  than  $84,000  of  this 
sum — and  it  shows  a contribution  of  less  than  fifteen  cents 
a member — was  used  in  giving  the  gospel  to  ourselves,  in 
what  we  call  “Domestic  Missions” — some  small  part  being 
expended  among  the  Indians,  upon  whose  inheritance  we 
have  entered.  If  we  averaged  fifty  cents  a member,  the 
expense  would  be  less  than  two  per  cent. 

On  this  subject  the  Southern  Presbyterian  and  Index  zdiys, 
conclusively:  “ Our  Missionary  Boards  will  not  suffer  in 
comparison  with  any  other  charitable  or  commercial  finan- 
cial management  in  our  land ; and  if  put  in  comparison 
with  some  of  our  most  popular  commercial  institutions, 
they  will  command  unlimited  confidence  for  their  financial 
sagacity,  prudence,  and  economy.” 

One  would  think  so.  The  political  millennium  will  have 
come  when  Government  can  approximate  such  a showing. 

The  question  of  expense  should  be  considered  in  connec- 
tion with  the  results.  A high  authority  says : “The  for- 
eign field  for  the  past  ten  years  has  yielded  more  converts 
in  proportion  to  labor  expended  than  the  home  field.  The 
number  added  to  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  1870,  on  pro- 
fession of  faith,  compared  with  the  whole  membership,  was 
six  per  cent.;  the  gain  of  foreign  missions,  as  a whole, 
twelve  per  cent.;  gain  of  the  Presbyterian  missions  in 
India,  sixteen  per  cent.;  gain  of  American  Board  of  For- 
eign Missions  in  Eastern  Turkey,  eighteen  per  cent.;  gain 
of  the  Presbyterian  missions  in  China,  twenty-five  per  cent.” 


66 


GO  OR  SEND: 


Other  vigorous  missions — among  them,  we  doubt  not,  the 
missions  of  the  Wesleyans  in  England,  and  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church  in  the  United  States — will  make  as  en- 
couraging an  exhibit. 

In  this  connection,  a word  upon  the  commercial  value  of 
missions  may  strike  some  minds,  though  no  religious  man 
will  need  such  an  argument  to  induce  him  to  do  his  duty. 

The  civilization  of  the  heathen  creates  new  wants,  which 
must  be  largely  supplied  by  Christian  countries.  Besides, 
it  gives  him  a market  for  his  productions,  the  profit  on 
which  his  buyers  — Christian  nations  — get  the  largest 
share. 

Take  the  following  figures,  vouched  for  by  competent 
authority:  The  commerce  of  the  United  States  with  the 
Sandwich  Islands  alone,  in  1870,  was  ^54,406,426,  while  in 
the  same  year  the  whole  amount  expended  in  Foreign  Mis- 
sions by  all  denominations  in  this  country  was  $1,633,801. 
“The  cost  of  the  Sandwich  Islands  Mission,’’  says  Dr.  An- 
derson, “up  to  1869” — that  is  for  fifty  years,  and  during 
the  whole  period  of  its  dependence  on  the  Board — “was 
$1,220,000.’’ 

The  profits  of  our  trade  with  the  Sandwich  Islands  for 
1871  was  $660,964 — more  than  half  of  all  that  was  expend- 
ed on  the  mission  during  fifty  years. 

Take  one  more  statement,  from  an  article  published  in 
the  Congregationalist: 

“ The  commerce  between  the  British  possessions  in  Af- 
rica and  the  ports  of  New  England,  during  the  year  end- 
ing June  30,  1871,  amounted  to  $2,671,913.  Fifteen  per 
cent,  gain  on  the  trade  gives  $400,786  profit.  The  whole 
amount  expended  by  the  American  Board,  in  all  its  mis- 
sions, the  same  year,  was  only  $420,844;  so  that  New 
England  received,  in  real  gain,  from  Africa  alone,  within 
$20,000  as  much  as  the  American  Board  expended  on  all 


A PLEA  FOR  MISSIONS. 


67 


its  foreign  missions  in  the  whole  world,  and  probably 
g 75,000  more  than  the  people  of  New  England  gave  to  the 
support  of  that  Board.” 

Many  pages  of  such  figures  might  be  given. 

We  do  not  here  make  an  argument  to  show  that  God 
blesses  the  “cheerful  giver”  to  every  good  cause,  though 
it  is  very  easy  to  establish  it.  For  our  part,  we  believe 
what  God  says  by  his  prophet:  “Bring  ye  all  the  tithes 
into  the  store-house,  that  there  may  be  meat  in  my  house, 
and  prove  me  now  herewith,  saith  the  Lord  of  hosts,  if  I 
will  not  open  you  the  windows  of  heaven,  and  pour  you 
out  a blessing  that  there  shall  not  be  room  enough  to  re- 
ceive it.” 

It  is  true  in  every  good  sense,  that  God  blesses  those  who 
“honor  him  with  their  substance;”  but  we  must  not  wait 
till  we  can  see  just  how  we  are  to  get  back  “cent  for  cent, 
dollar  for  dollar.”  Leave  all  such  calculations  to  “ the 
children  of  this  world.”  Let  “the  children  of  the  king- 
dom” give  of  their  substance  to  build  up  the  kingdom,  out 
of  loyalty  to  the  King — even  if  they  know  they  will  never 
get  back  “cent  for  cent,  dollar  for  dollar” — even  if  they 
know  they  will  live  and  die  so  much  the  poorer  for  their 
gifts. 

Christ’s  great  blessing  upon  the  woman  who  gave  her 
“two  mites — even  all  her  living  ” — into  his  treasury,  is  not 
in  the  return  of  the  mites  to  her  house. 

We  must  invest  in  Christ’s  work  with  faith  in  the  kingdom. 
That  cannot  fail,  and  investments  in  it  cannot  be  lost.  All 
other  investments  will  fail,  because  all  other  kingdoms  will 
perish.  But  all  contributions — of  money,  or  prayers,  or 
love,  or  service,  or  suffering — for  the  evangelization  of  the 
world,  will  abide  forever.  They  belong  to  the  progress  of 
the  race — the  salvation  of  men.  They  are  embalmed  in 
the  history  of  the  triumphs  of  the  kingdom  of  Jesus  Christ. 


68 


GO  OR  send: 


How  cheering  the  thought ! Though  our  other  investments 
fail  us,  though  they  perish,  investments  “constrained  by 
the  love  of  Christ”  live  forever — augmenting  the  riches 
of  our  inheritance  with  the  saints  in  light. a 

The  Greeks  are  at  cur  Doors. — Randolph’s  sharp  sarcasm 
upon  the  sentimentalism  of  the  women  who  allowed  their 
servants  to  go  half-naked  while  they  made  uniforms  for  the 
Greek  patriots,  was  good  enough  in  its  place,  but,  perhaps, 
it  has  been  quoted  often  enough  by  persons  who  wish  to 
dodge  their  obligations  to  the  cause  of  missions.  The 
point  of  the  sarcasm  has  been  dulled  by  too  frequent  and 
improper  use.  But  dull  and  broken  as  it  is,  what  service  it 
still  renders  the  cause  of  avarice ! Almost  equal  to  that 
other  “saw” — “Charity  begins  at  home” — of  which 
Richard  Watson  says:  “It  is  a neat  pocket-edition  of 


a A gentleman  in  Macon,  Georgia,  when  the  war  was  over,  and  the 
hard  earnings  of  many  years  were  swept  away,  said  to  a ministerial 
friend : “ I wish  I had  given  more  to  the  cause  of  Christ.  All  is  gone 
but  what  I gave  to  the  Church.  That  is  sailed  down."  This  may  re- 
mind the  reader  of  that  curious  epitaph  in  a church  in  Doncaster,  York, 
England,  which  reads: 

“ Howe,  Howe,  who  is  here  ? 

I,  Robin  of  Doncastere, 

And  Margaret  my  feare. 

That  I spent,  that  I had. 

That  I gave,  that  I have. 

That  I left,  that  I lost. 

A.D.  1397. 

Quoth  Robertus  Byrks,  who  in  this  world  did  reign 
Threescore  years  and  seven,  but  lived  not  ane.” 

By  the  way,  there  is  a similar  epitaph  on  the  Earl  of  Devonshire — on 
which  Spencer,  the  old  chronicler,  makes  this  improve?nent : “The 
above  inscription  may  seem  odd;  but  when  attentively  considered,  will 
appear  to  have  been  dictated  by  a veiy  thinking  person,  and  contains  a 
real  estimate  of  the  value,  as  well  as  the  use,  of  riches.” 


A PLEA  FOR  MISSIONS. 


69 


selfishness.”  “ Charity  begins  at  home,”  indeed ! A say- 
ing that  has  no  sense  in  it,  since  it  is  not  charity  for  one 
to  feed  and  clothe  his  own  wife  and  children;  since  charity 
is  not  charity  till  it  gets  beyond  home;  since  nothing  is 
worth  the  name  that  does  not  sacrifice  self. 

It  is  almost  useless  to  argue  with  people  who  can  hush 
their  consciences  by  such  “old  saws.”  Three  considera- 
tions may  be  mentioned  that  should  silence,  if  they  do  not 
convince  them. 

1.  Those  persons  who  plead  exemption  from  the  work 
of  Foreign  Missions  on  the  ground  that  there  are  many 
unconverted  people  in  Christian  lands,  do  less  for  Domestic 
Missions  than  any  other  class.  Rightly  understood  and 
managed.  Foreign  and  Domestic  Missions  do  not  antagon- 
ize each  other.  Those  Churches — let  history  vindicate  the 
assertion — that  do  most  for  Foreign,  do  most  for  Domestic, 
Missions. 

2.  The  example  of  the  apostles  should  settle  the  ques- 
tion. They  were  inspired,  and  what  they  did,  after  they 
knew  the  mind  of  the  Spirit,  and  comprehended  the  plans 
of  the  Redeemer,  was  the  right  thing  to  do.  For  a time 
they  were  as  unmissionary  as  the  veriest  “hard-shell,”  but 
this  was  their  ignorance.  They  were  willing  enough  to  re- 
ceive the  Gentiles  into  the  Church  through  Judaism,  but 
not  to  disciple  them  as  Gentiles.  But  when  the  Holy 
Ghost  enlightened  them,  and  they  saw  that  Jesus  meant 
literally  what  he  said,  “Go  ye  into  all  the  world,  and 
preach  the  gospel  to  every  creature,”  they  gave  themselves 
to  the  work  of  Christianizing — not  Judaizing — the  nations. 

The  “hard-shell”  says:  “Convert  the  sinners  at  home, 
before  going  to  the  heathen.”  If  there  is  any  force  in  this, 
then  the  apostles  did  wrong  to  leave  Jerusalem  till  all  the 
Jews  there  embraced  Jesus  as  the  Christ.  Then  the  revival 
at  Antioch  was  an  anomalous  outbreak  in  the  kingdom  of 


70 


GO  OR  send: 


Christ,  neither  expected  nor  desired.  Then  Paul  went  into 
Europe — how  long  too  soon  we  cannot  guess,  unless  we 
knew  how  long  it  would  have  taken  to  convert  every  man, 
woman,  and  child  in  the  Jewish  nation.  “ But,”  goes  on 
this  “hard-shell,”  “that  is  my  opinion,  anyhow — convert 
the  home  sinners  first.”  Very  likely;  but  the  question  is, 
whether  you  are  going  by  your  opinion  or  the  book.  Sup- 
pose your  “opinion”  should  contradict  that!  If  you  are 
right,  the  apostles  were  wrong.  Which? 

3.  The  command  of  Christ  is  conclusive.  Christ  is  a 
King  to  be  obeyed,  as  well  as  a Saviour  to  be  trusted.  If 
he  were  not  also  our  King,  he  could  not  be  our  Saviour. 
His  word  is  not  mere  exhortation — it  is  law.  Dr.  Newton 
has  admirably  said:  ‘‘We  are  not  to  ask  what  is  attended 
with  difficulty,  but  what  is  duty.  That  duty  is  determined 
by  law.  We  ought  never  to  forget  the  language  of  our 
great  Master,  which  is  imperative,  and  which  renders  obe- 
dience indispensable.  As  his  law  is  express  authority,  our 
duty  is  clear;  and  were  difficulties  ten  thousand  times  more 
numerous  than  they  are,  still,  because  the  great  Head  of 
the  Church  has  commanded  us  to  engage  in  them,  it  would 
be  our  duty  to  do  so  with  all  our  might;  because  the 
greater  the  difficulty  the  greater  the  necessity  for  diligence, 
and  activity,  and  zeal.” 

The  simple  truth  is : the  Church  that  concerns  itself 
only  about  Home  Missions,  with  the  belief  that  it  obeys  the 
law  of  Christ  on  the  subject,  deludes  itself.  Its  eyes  are 
blinded  by  a very  thin  gauze  of  semi-religious  sentiment. 

Moreover,  the  Church  that  does  nothing  for  the  heathen 
cannot  rightly  do  its  home  work;  for  its  method,  being 
unscriptural,  is  false,  its  view  limited,  its  zeal  diluted,  its 
faith  weak,  its  arm  paralyzed.  And  all  such  narrow  views 
and  unscriptural  plans  bring  their  own  just  retribution — the 
missionary  treasury  that  exists  only  for  Home  Missions  will 


A PLEA  FOR  MISSIONS. 


71 


inevitably  become  bankrupt.  The  facts  and  principles  of 
the  case,  the  example  of  the  apostles,  the  command  of 
Christ,  make  honest  and  intelligent  doubt  on  this  question 
an  impossibility.  IVe  must  do  Christ' s work  in  Christ' s way. 

The  Doctrine  of  Averages. — It  is  very  convenient  for  the- 
orizing, but  it  is  unsafe  as  a basis  of  appropriations.  The 
trouble  is,  that  those  who  should  give  more  than  the  average 
take  advantage  of  it,  and  compliment  themselves  upon  their 
liberality  when  they  come  up  to  it.  If  we  had  one  dollar 
from  each  of  our  654,000  members,  we  should  have  $654,- 
000.  To  be  sure;  but  this  is  not  the  best  way  to  put  the 
case.  Each  member  should  give  something,  and  is  bound, 
by  every  law  of  the  kingdom,  to  do  so — not  according  to 
the  delusive  doctrine  of  averages,  but  as  the  “Lord  hath 
prospered  him.”  ‘‘Every  man  according  to  his  several 
ability.”  The  law  does  not  state  the  amount : it  puts  that 
upon  each  man’s  conscience;  and  some  consciences  are 
very  dark,  or  dead.  Some  are  as  much  bound  to  give 
$1,000  as  others  are  to  give  $1.00,  and  it  would  require 
less  sacrifice  to  do  it.  Millionaires  have  no  business  talk- 
ing about  averages  with  day-laborers.  When  the  rich  fall 
down  to  the  averages,  they  “fall  from  grace.”  There  is 
power  in  the  “penny-a-week”  doctrine,  if  only  it  be  so 
adjusted  that  it  shall  read  “a  pound  a week”  for  those 
who  ought  to  give  “a  poiind  a week."  We  fear  that  this 
doctrine  of  averages  is  proving  a snare  of  Satan  to  some 
of  our  richer  people.  Let  them  consider  what  Bunyan  says 
of  those  pilgrims  who  “at  the  first  beck  went  over  to  De- 
mas”  digging  for  silver  in  the  hill  Lucre:  “Now,  whether 
they  fell  into  the  pit  by  looking  over  the  brink  thereof,  or 
whether  they  went  down  to  dig,  or  whether  they  were 
smothered  in  the  bottom  by  the  damps  that  commonly 
arise,  of  these  things  I am  not  certain  ; but  this  I observed, 
that  they  were  never  seen  again  in  the  way.  ’ ’ 


72 


GO  OR  SEND: 


Method. — We  are  called  Methodists ; let  us  raise  mission- 
ary money  methodically.  A cold,  apologetic,  perfunctory, 
“hat  collection”  at  the  end  of  the  year  is  a downright  in- 
sult to  the  cause.  It  is  the  business  of  the  General  and 
Annual  Conferences  and  of  the  Board  of  Managers  to  find 
out  the  best  methods;  and  this  cannot  be  discussed  now 
and  here.  But  this  much  may  be  said  : No  method  is  good 
that  does  not  bring  the  cause  of  Christ  in  the  cause  of 
missions  home  to  the  conscience,  that  does  not  tend  to  get 
something  from  each  one,  and  to  develop  liberality  to  the 
point  of  giving  according  to  the  measure  of  ability. 

A circuit  might  be  mentioned,  of  more  than  six  hundred 
members,  that,  in  1868,  gave  $50  missionary  money.  Less 
than  fifty  persons  gave  it  all ; five,  including  the  preacher, 
who,  in  proportion  to  his  ability,  gave  ten  times  as  much 
as  any  of  the  rest,  gave  half  of  it.  Here  was  lack  of 
method,  ora  hopelessly  intractable  people. 

One  Remedy. — There  is  no  practical  question  of  so  great 
importance  now  before  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
South,  as  the  question  of  its  missionary  policy  and  work. 
That  it  is  satisfactory  to  any  one  who  knows  or  cares  any 
thing  about  it,  is  incredible.  We  have  reached  the  point 
where  we  must  advance. 

Many  remedies  may  be  needed;  let  the  proper  authorities 
find  them  out.  We  suggest  but  one — rednnounce  the  great 
commissiojt.  Our  trouble  comes  from  lack  of  missionary  fire ; 
it  must  be  kindled  where  it  is  not,  and  blown  into  a blaze 
where  there  is  a little  lingering  spark.  The  right  zeal  will 
solve  all  difficulties.  “ Where  there  is  a will  there  is  a way,” 
for  love  and  zeal  are  wise  and  fruitful  of  inventions. 

“Faith  cometh  by  hearing.”  We  must  “preach  the 
word”  on  this  subject,  “proving  out  of  the  Scriptures” 
that  the  gospel  is  intended  for  all  men  ; that  it  is  adapted 
to  all  men,  and  necessary  to  all  men ; that  it  is  the  duty  of 


A PLEA  FOR  MISSIONS. 


73 


the  Church  to  give  it  to  all  men ; that  Christ  has  all  power 
in  heaven  and  in  earth,  and  that  he  is  “ Head  over  all 
things  to  the  Church.” 

The  Church  grows  in  those  graces  in  which  she  is  in- 
structed and  exercised.  Suppose  that  every  pulpit  in  our 
land  were  silent  on  the  obligations  of  the  Sabbath  for 
twenty  years?  The  Church  would  fall  from  this  grace  also. 

The  effort  to  indoctrinate  the  Church  on  the  subject  of 
missions  will  quicken  the  zeal  of  every  pastor  who  attempts 
it.  His  views  will  enlarge,  his  faith  expand,  his  grati- 
tude deepen,  his  love  widen,  his  zeal  glow,  till  the  per- 
functory methods  will  be  an  abomination  to  him,  till  a 
meager  collection  will  shame  him,  till  a neglected  collec- 
tion will  not  only  smite  his  conscience,  but  arrest,  as  it 
should,  “the  passage  of  his  character”  by  his  Conference. 
The  preaching  of  gospel  doctrine  is  the  great  remedy  for 
the  neglect  of  gospel  duty — the  one  efficient  alterative  and 
tonic  that  is  sufficient  to  invigorate  the  enfeebled  ecclesias- 
tical constitution. 

Let  the  bishops  and  chief  clergy  set  the  example — th?* 
rest  will  follow.  If  they  will  not,  then  their  humbler 
brethren  must  go  forward  without  them.  Men  like  Carey — 
“consecrated  cobblers” — must  awaken,  arouse,  and  ener- 
gize the  Church. 

Finally:  From  the  principles  and  facts  of  missionary 

history;  from  the  consideration  of  the  condition  of  the 
heathen  world ; from  the  gratitude  we  who  have  the  gospel 
owe  to  Him  who  gave  it ; from  the  example  of  the  apostles 
and  the  command  of  Christ,  we  conclude  that  “it  is  the 
duty  of  the  Church  to  evangelize  the  world,”  and  that  in 
doing  this  every  Christian  is  bound  in  loyalty  to  his  Re- 
deemer and  King,  as  well  as  by  love  to  man,  to  go  or  send. 

4 


I 

> 

I 

•3 

I 

I 

i 

I 

« 


(74) 


COMPARATIVE  TABLE: 

ShoVing  the  Progress  of  Christianity  in  British  India  since  1852. 


FOREIGN  MISSIONS 

OF  THE 

JJetiiodist  f]piscoPAL  Qhurcii,  §outh. 


I.  Mission  to  China. 

Missionaries — Rev.  Jas.  W.  Lambuth,  Rev.  Young  J. 

Allen a 

Assistant  Missionaries — Mrs.  Lambuth,  Mrs.  Allen...  a 

Native  preachers 3 

Bible  women a 

Mission  Stations  — Shanghai,  Naziang,  Soochow, 

Chang-chow 4 

Schools 3 

Teachers 3 

Mission-houses  (residences) 2 

Churches 3 

Church-lot i 

Church-members 83 

II.  hidian  Mission  Conference. 

Traveling  preachers 17 

Local  preachers 73 

Indian  members 4613 

White  members 454 

Colored  meml  ers 477 

III.  Mission  to  Mexico. 

Rev.  Joel  T.  Daves,  Superintendent. 

Rev.  Alejo  Hernandez,  Missionary. 

Churches  (in  the  City  of  Mexico) a 

This  Mission  was  organized  in  1873  by  Bishop  Keener, 

who  speaks  very  encouragingly  of  its  prospects. 


PERIODICALS. 


CHRISTIAN  ADVOCATE. 

THOS.  O.  SUMMERS,  D.D.,  Editor. 

Per  annum ^2  oc 

To  ministers i ©c 


SUNDAY-SCHOOL  MAGAZINE. 


A.  G.  Haygood,  D.D.,  Editor. 

Per  annum |i  ©o 

To  Clubs  of  five  or  more,  to  one  address,  six  Lesson  Papers 
gratis  to  each  subscriber. 


SUNDAY-SCHOOL  VISITOR. 

A.  G.  Haygood,  D.D.,  Editor. 


IVeeify,  sing]e  copies,  per  annum 75 

One  hundred  copies $^o  00 

Semi-monthly,  single  copies,  per  annum 40 

One  hundred  copies 25  00 

Monthly,  single  copies,  per  annum 20 

One  hundred  copies..... 12  50 


OUR  LITTLE  PEOPLE. 

A.  G.  Haygood,  D.D.,  Editor. 

One  hundred  copies,  per  annum ^10  00 

Catalogues  of  the  House  sent  to  all  persons,  on  appluation. 

Address  uJVJsL  REDFORD,  Agent, 

Nashville,  Tenh. 

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